THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


The  Church  of  the  Pilgrims, 


BROOKLYN,  NEW  YORK: 


/ 

ITS  CHARACTER  AND  WORK,  WITH  THE  CHANGES  AROUND  IT,  DURING 

FORTY  YEARS  OF  PASTORAL  SERVICE. 


A  DISCOUESE, 


DELIVERED  NOVEMBER  1  4,  1  8  8  6, 


BY 

IIICIIARD  SrSTORRS,  D.D.^  LL.D., 


/i  t 

PASTOR. 


A.  S.  BAENES  &l  COMPANY, 

NEW  YORK  &  CHICAGO. 


COPYRIGHT,  1886.  A.  S.  BARNES  &  CO. 


I 


z  ?s.  ? 

SiU 


DISCOURSK. 


“  Now  therefore  ye  are  no  more  strangers  and  foreigners,  but  fellow  citizens  with 
the  saints,  and  of  the  household  of  God  ;  and  are  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles 
and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the  chief  corner-stone  ;  in  whom  all  the  build¬ 
ing  fitly  framed  together  groweth  unto  a  holy  temple  in  the  Lord  ;  in  whom  ye  also  are 
builded  together,  for  a  habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit.” — Ephesians  ii  ;  19-22. 

My  dear  Christian  Friends  : — The  completion  of  forty  years  of 
continuous  pastoral  service  in  this  chnrch  inclines  my  thoughts 
to-day,  and  possibly  yours,  with  a  natural  impulse,  toward  a  rapid 
survey  of  what  the  church  has  hitherto  been,  in  its  unfolding  life  and 
power,  and  of  what  it  has  done,  or  sought  to  do,  in  service  to  the  Master. 
There  may  be  nothing  in  such  a  survey  of  special  interest  or  importance 
to  others,  but  for  us  the  story  cannot  fail  of  significance,  and  perhaps 
we  may  take  incitement  from  it  to  finer,  larger,  and  more  fruitful  work 
in  the  time  which  remains.  The  changes  constantly  occurring  around 
us — never  before  so  frequent  or  impressive  in  our  community  as  in 
recent  years — admonish  us  forcibly  that  such  a  sketch,  by  the  only 
Pastor  whom  the  church  has  yet  had,  should  not  be  deferred  to  some 
other  anniversary,  which  for  him  may  never  come.  With  no  other 
feeling,  therefore,  than  one  of  humility  in  reviewing  my  part  in  the 
work  here  done,  of  profound  affection  toward  those  with  whom  I  have 
been  associated  in  the  church  and  congregation,  and  in  their  respective 
official  boards,  and  of  grateful  praise  toward  Him  who  has  blessed  our 
common  effort  with  the  power  and  grace  of  Divine  benediction,  I  wmuld 
recall  some  principal  facts  in  our  church-history,  wfith  some  of  the 
characteristic  traits  which  have  .marked  our  church-life.  If  I  ask  your 
attention  fora  longer  time  than  is  usually  allotted  to  sermons,  even  when 
preached  on  special  occasions,  you  will  remember,  I  am  sure,  how  wide 
a  range  the  subject  contemplates,  how  many  particulars  it  must  include, 
and  how  impossible  it  naturally  is  that  another  equal  term  of  years 
should  present  itself  for  our  common  review. 

This  church  was  constituted,  as  a  distinct  Christian  society,  in  the 
love  of  Christ,  and  for  the  furtherance  of  llis  earthly  kingdom,  by  men 
who  not  only  believed  His  teachings,  rejoiced  in  His  offices,  and  wor- 


4 


DISCO  URSE. 


r*!-**' 

'  Vv/V  ■ 

.  t 

•  "•  7<^  'M'  V 


shipped  His  person,  but  who  had  a  tender  and  reverent  sense  of  the 
sacredness  of  the  Church,  as  essentially  I’elated  to  the  manifestation  of 
His  life  in  the  world.  The  “  congregation  of  faithful  men  ”  was  not  to 
them  a  mere  assembly  of  persons  statedly  meeting  to  listen  to  dis¬ 
courses.  It  was  not  a  simple  human  society,  for  self-cultivation  in 
ethical  or  philosophical  knowledge,  or  even  in  religious  thought,  and  in 
the  graces  and  forces  of  character.  It  was  to  them,  as  it  had  been  to  the 
apostle  by  whom  were  written  the  words  of  the  text,  as  it  has  been  to 
us,  the  living  and  continuing  household  of  Christ ;  knit  together  and 
quickened  by  faith  toward  Him ;  endowed  by  Him  with  the  riches  of 
His  truth,  and  the  treasure  of  His  sacraments ;  in  which  He  personally 
meets  His  disciples,  to  impart  to  them  a  heavenlier  life  than  earth  can 
offer ;  before  which  He  opens  celestial  gates.  Sacred  fellowships  with 
each  other,  a  supreme  and  transforming  consciousness  of  His  presence, 
exulting  and  inspiring  worship,  with  joyful  service  rendered  to  His 
cause — these  were  tlierefore  the  aims  of  those  who  felt  themselves  drawn 
by  the  motion  of  His  Spirit  to  form  this  church.  Every  effort  for  it 
was  to  their  apprehension  an  offering  to  Him,  whom  God  hath  set  in 
the  heavenly  places  to  be  the  Head  over  all  things  to  the  Church. 
Yocal  with  His  praise,  it  was  to  be  also  vital  with  His  life.  They 
expected  it  to  stand,  in  whatsoever  local  independence,  in  essential 
alliance  with  all  communions  of  those  who  love  Him  ;  and  they  expected 
it  thus  to  stand,  still  testifying  of  Him,  still  pervaded  by  His  gracious 
energy,  and  still  in  its  measure  serving  the  progress  of  His  kingly  cause, 
while  generations  should  come  and  go.  This  tender  and  lofty  concep¬ 
tion  of  the  church,  with  this  aspiration  concerning  its  spiritual  work  in 
the  world,  has  been  a  constant  moulding  force  in  its  development. 

It  has  been  constituted,  from  the  first,  of  Christian  families,  living 
for  the  most  part  in  near  neighborhood,  while  brought  into  closer  spir¬ 
itual  connection  by  their  common  faith  in  the  .Divine  Master,  and  their 
common  desire  for  the  supreme  and  immortal  attainments  made  possible 
by  Him.  Under  the  impulse  and  law  of  the  Gospel,  with  the  approval 
of  kindred  churches,  such  families  were  here  formally  associated,  for 
common  worship,  with  instruction  and  prayer,  and  the  due  celebration 
of  Christian  sacraments,  for  mutual  helpfulness  toward  whatever  is  best 
in  wisdom,  knowledge,  and  holy  affection,  and  for  united  Christian 
labors.  The  church  has  always  continued  to  be  what  it  thus  was  at 
first,  a  household- church ;  and  the  impress  of  the  fact  has  been  apparent 
in  all  its  history. 

The  very  location  of  its  house  of  worship,  in  a  part  of  the  city 
occupied  by  residences,  and  removed  from  the  avenues  along  which 


DISCOURSE. 


5 


passengers  are  carried  in  cars,  lias  contributed  to  keep  it  a  church  of 
families,  socially  as  well  as  religiously  allied.  At  one  time,  indeed, 
while  this  house  \vas  undergoing  reconstruction,  we  worshipped  for  a 
year  in  the  Academy  of  Music,  at  the  point  where  several  car-lines  con¬ 
verge,  and  wdiere  very  large  congregations  W’^ere  assembled,  gathered 
from  every  section  of  the  city,  and  including  elements  as  diverse  as  pos¬ 
sible,  in  respect  to  religious  opinion  and  character  as  w’ell  as  to  resi¬ 
dence,  previous  associations,  forms  of  occupation,  social  position.  That 
formed  an  interesting  episode  in  our  history  which  we  gladly  remem¬ 
ber,  for  the  wddened  opportunities  which  it  afforded,  with  the  happy 
ehects  which  followed  the  exhibition  of  the  Lord  in  the  Gospel  to 
wanderers  and  wayfarers  as  well  as  to  clustered  Christian  households. 
Some  of  us,  perhaps,  would  not  have  been  sorry  if  a  similar  opportunity, 
though  not  presented  by  a  similar  occasion,  had  been  opened  to  us  again. 
But  the  church  was  intentionally  planted  at  first  as  a  household-church; 
and  such  it  has  continued  to  be,  with  wdiatever  of  limitation,  with  what¬ 
ever  of  advantage,  belongs  to  this  distinctive  constitution. 

A  certain  reserve  has  therefore  characterized  it,  such  as  used  to  be 
more  common  in  churches  than  it  has  been  of  late.  There  has  never 
been  felt  here  the  passion  for  publicity  which  finds  the  church-life  most 
exhilarating  when  public  mention  of  it  is  frequent;  to  which  the  church 
appears  walking  victoriously  on  high  places  wdien  the  newspapers  are 
occupied  with  what  is  said  or  done  within  it.  We  have  preferred  to 
live  in  the  privacy  secured  to  us,  and  to  do  our  work,  in  our  special 
sphere,  without  proclamation.  It  has  never  been  our  wmnt  to  advertise 
our  services,  except  on  the  rarest  public  occasions ;  and  the  many 
strangers  whom  w^e  have  gladly  welcomed  to  them  have  come  from  an 
impulse  in  themselves,  not  as  attracted  by  notices  in  the  papers.  I 
imply  in  this  no  adverse  criticism  on  a  different  plan.  I  see,  indeed, 
that  that  may  have  advantages.  I  speak  only  of  wLat  our  own  custom 
has  been,  as  naturally  suggested  by  the  particular  composition  of  the 
church. 

The  families  thus  associated  have  by  no  means  been  wholly  from 
New  England,  or  descendants  of  the  Puritan  stock;  nor  have  they  been 
such,  only,  as  had  previously  been  accustomed  to  the  Congregational 
order  or  worship.  English,  Scotch,  and  German  families  have  been  as 
pleasantly  at  home  in  the  church  as  have  been  those  of  American 
origin  ;  so  have  families  of  the  Llolland  lineage,  or  those  springing  from 
a  Huguenot  ancestry;  families  from  the  Horth  of  Ireland,  or  from 
Canada;  from  the  West,  the  Middle  States,  or  the  South,  as  w^ell  as 
those  from  New  England.  We  have  had  among  us,  and  have  to-day,, 


6 


DISCO  UR  SB. 


those  born  and  trained  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  in  either  of  its 
reunited  divisions ;  those  brought  up  from  childhood  in  the  Episcopal 
Church,  in  the  Methodist,  the  Baptist,  the  Peformed,  the  Lutheran,  the 
Unitarian,  the  Society  of  Friends,  as  well  as  those  born  and  baptized  in 
Congregational  churches.  They  have  dwelt  together  in  tlie  happiest 
mutual  confidence  and  sympathy,  on  the  common  foundation  of  faith  in 
the  Master ;  and  those  who  have  come  from  other  nationalities,  or  from 
communions  remote  from  ours,  have  contributed  as  much  as  any  others 
to  the  furtherance  of  the  church,  by  wise  counsels,  liberal  gifts,  and  an 
affectionate  enthusiasm  of  spirit.  To  many  of  them,  I  know,  this 
church  has  become  as  familiar  a  home,  as  fondly  beloved,  as  if  they  had 
never  known  any  other ;  and  the  continual  variety  in  unity  which  has 
marked  the  congregation  has  been  to  it  a  source  of  strength,  to  him 
who  long  has  ministered  to  it  an  occasion  of  constant  refreshment  and 
joy.  Two  or  three,  certainly,  have  here  worshipped  who  had  been 
trained  in  the  Jesuit  schools  ;  several  are  now  here  whose  early  disci¬ 
pline  was  in  convents. 

Pelatively,  at  least,  this  has  been  also  a  permanent  congregation. 
Of  course  changes  continually  occur  in  times  like  these,  and  in  commu¬ 
nities  like  ours,  where  men  easily  move  from  place  to  place,  and  where 
very  few  are  boro  in  the  houses  in  which  their  parents  had  been  children. 
The  event  of  death  sadly  and  suddenly  scatters  households ;  while,  aside 
from  this,  the  reverses  of  prosperity,  or  rapid  and  large  accumulations 
of  wealth,  the  claims  of  business,  new  social  attractions,  sometimes  no 
doubt  the  mere  desire  for  novelty  in  environment,  all  contribute  to 
multiply  changes  in  a  city-congregation ;  and  no  one  notices  such 
changes  more  instantly,  or  feels  them  more  keenly,  than  does  the  Pastor, 
as  familiar  hands  are  loosened  from  his  to  grasp  the  unseen  Hand  above, 
or  as  he  sees  families  to  whom  he  is  attached  removed  to  other  cities,  or 
to  parts  of  our  city  so  remote  that  attendance  on  our  services  becomes 
impossible.  How  many  such  changes  have  occurred  among  us  I  need 
not  remind  you.  We  look  in  vain  for  many  faces  which  used  to  be  here, 
keen  in  attention,  earnest  with  a  resolute  purpose,  or  suffused  with  joyful 
confidence  and  hope. 

Yet,  as  compared  with  many  congregations  situated  like  this,  in  the 
midst  of  recent  and  mobile  populations,  this  has  been  remarkably  per¬ 
manent.  More  than  twenty  families  are  represented  among  us  which 
were  here  when  I  first  stood  in  this  pulpit ;  while  the  number  of  those 
who  have  been  here  for  twenty  or  thirty  years  is  of  course  vastly  larger. 
The  church  has  had  the  same  clerk,  the  same  treasurer,  for  nearly 
thirty  years  each.  The  treasurer  of  the  Society  has  so  long  had  our 


DISCOURSE. 


7 


finances  in  liis  kind,  faithful,  and  punctual  hands,  that  we  hardly 
reineinber  when  his  function  began  ;  and  even  the  weekly  care  of  the 
house  in  which  we  worship  has  been  in  charge  of  one  officer  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century.  While,  therefore,  the  changes  in  the  congregation 
have  been  frequent  enough  to  keep  us  from  settling  into  ruts  of  routine, 
and  to  furnish  all  the  time  fresh  hearers  of  the  Word,  they  have  not 
interrupted  the  essential  continuity  of  the  life  of  the  church,  or  im¬ 
paired  in  the  least  its  early  sense  of  unity  in  the  spirit,  and  of  grateful 
and  happy  home  attachment. 

There  is  more  than  beauty  in  such  a  comparative  permanence  of 
congregations.  A  persistent  and  powerful  moral  force  comes  to  devel¬ 
opment  with  and  through  it.  The  church  has  its  impersonal  conscious¬ 
ness.  A  certain  invisible  spiritual  force  associates  its  members,  selects 
its  aims,  directs  its  conclusions,  prompts  or  limits  its  organized  action. 
It  cannot  become  a  revolving  mirror,  to  reflect  the  idiosyncracies  of  any 
one  in  the  pulpit.  Its  influence  on  the  Pastor  is  as  definite  and  positive 
as  is  his  upon  it ;  and  its  essential  self-propagating  life  will  not  cease  to 
exhibit  its  power,  and  to  work  its  effects,  whatever  Minister  comes  or 
goes.  Such  a  church,  with  its  roots  in  the  past,  and  its  living  inspira¬ 
tion  from  the  mind  of  the  Master,  need  not  fear  to  face  the  coming 
years.  Its  strength  is  inherent,  not  adventitious,  and  its  history  is 
prophetic.  Walls  of  stone,  pillars  of  oak,  are  its  natural  shelter,  not 
buildings  which  may  be  moved,  hither  and  yon,  like  the  tents  of  a 
circus ;  but  the  permanent  and  diffusive  force  of  its  life  wflll  surpass  in 
endurance  both  stone  and  oak. 

That  this  has  been  also  a  harmonious  church  hardly  needs  to  be 
said  ;  and  the  fact  has  been  on  the  one  hand  a  fruit,  on  the  other  hand 
a  source,  of  the  interior  continuity  of  its  life.  This  harmony  has  by 
no  means  implied  that  any  one  in  the  church,  whether  officer  or  member, 
has  always  had  matters  adjusted  to  his  preference.  We  have  all  of  us 
had  occasionally  to  yield  to  a  general  judgment  adverse  to  our  views. 
Nor  has  it  implied  that  no  subjects  for  discussion  have  been  presented, 
disclosing  sharp  differences  of  opinion  or  feeling.  We  have  had, 
rather,  our  full  share  of  such  ;  touching  matters  of  the  inner  adminis¬ 
tration  of  church  or  society,  or  touching  our  relations  to  other  churches, 
or  to  benevolent  organizations.  But  frank,  courteous,  and  ample  dis¬ 
cussion,  continued  sometimes  through  successive  sessions,  has  always 
brought  consent  in  the  end  on  the  part  of  a  majority  never,  I  think, 
on  critical  questions,  of  less  than  three-fourths  of  those  voting  upon 
them ;  and  when  such  consent  has  been  declared  the  minority  has 
yielded  with  ready  compliance.  A  factious  minority  in  the  church  has 


8 


DISCO  URSE, 


never  existed.  It  is  not  impossible  that  some  may  Lave  left  it,  at  one 
time  or  another,  because  their  wishes  had  been  overruled,  though  I 
recall  only  four  or  five  instances  in  which  I  have  any  reason  to  suppose 
this.  But  far  the  larger  number  of  those  whose  judgment  or  desire 
had  failed  to  control  our  corporate  action  have  continued  as  affection¬ 
ately  attached  to  the  church,  and  as  eager  for  its  welfare,  as  before  such 
action  had  been  taken.  They  have  fully  understood  that  the  Christian 
neighbors  and  long-time  friends  with  whom  they  here  worshipped  were 
desirous  to  consult  the  best  interests  of  all  ;  that  while  the  general 
mind  of  the  church  must  be  commanding  on  all  questions  afiecting  its 
policy,  there  was  no  wish  to  restrain  the  expression  of  adverse  opinion, 
or  to  crowd  a  minority  into  a  course  obnoxious  to  them  ;  and  that,  if 
experience  should  show  the  inexpediency  of  any  course  of  approved 
action,  it  would  cheerfully  be  retraced.  So  they  have  uniformly  acqui¬ 
esced  in  what  has  been  done ;  have  borne  their  part  in  accomplishing 
measures  to  which  at  first  they  had  been  disinclined  ;  and  have  hoped, 
with  others,  for  the  good  results  which  for  themselves  they  could  scarcely 
anticipate,  but  which  I  think  they  have  afterward  generally  admitted  to 
be  realized. 

An  incidental  illustration  of  this  prevalent  harmony  is  presented  by 
the  fact  that  while  the  term  of  office  of  a  Deacon  in  the  church  is  limited 
by  our  rules  to  six  years,  one  honored  brother — a  man  of  the  strongest 
convictions  and  character,  who  was  not  nnfrequently  earnest  in  debate 
and  indexible  in  vote  against  measures  which  yet  the  church  accepted — 
was  continued  in  that  office,  by  successive  reelections,  for  nearly  forty 
years,  would  be  in  it  to-day  if  he  had  not  been  called  to  go  up  higher ; 
while  of  the  present  incumbents  of  the  office  each  has  held  it  since  his 
first  election,  one  of  tbem  for  twenty-eight  years,  another  for  twenty- 
four.  Many  other  churches  have  been  larger  than  this,  and  more  con¬ 
spicuous.  I  doubt  if  any  one  can  be  found  which  has  had  a  happier 
concord  of  feeling  so  long  and  so  habitually  manifest  in  it. 

As  a  church  of  affiliated  Christia,n  households,  this  was  not  estab¬ 
lished,  and  it  has  not  existed,  as  a  centre  of  either  doctrinal  or  ecclesias¬ 
tical  propagan  dism ;  but  it  has  consistently  honored  the  Faith  in  the 
acceptance  of  which  it  was  founded,  and  the  special  form  of  organization 
which  at  the  outset  it  adopted.  A  Congregational  church,  orthodox  in 
doctrine  while  democratic  in  polity,  was  a  distinct  novelty  here  when 
this  church  began.  Congregationalism  was  associated,  in  the  general 
thought,  either  with  Unitarian  teaching,  or  with  some  variety  of  the 
then  odious  Perfectionist  opinions.  It  was  widely  expected  that  this 
church  would  soon  become  absorbed  in  some  established  and  command- 


DISCO  URSE. 


9 


iiig  communion  preceding  it  on  this  ground  ;  or  that,  if  developing  on 
its  own  lines,  it  would  take  the  attitude  toward  such  commimiuiis  of 
repellence  and  menace.  It  was  frequently  suggested  that  its  Confession 
of  Faith  would  not  long  be  maintained,  but  that  some  attractive  ration¬ 
alizing  scheme  would  emerge  in  place  of  it.  •  It  may  not  be  said,  per¬ 
haps,  tliat  such  fears,  in  either  direction,  were  then  unnatural;  but  it  may 
certainly,  with  emphasis,  be  said  that  no  such  fears  have  been  justified 
by  our  history,  that  none  such  can  now  continue. 

We  have  not  over-valued  any  special  form  of  Church-constitution. 
We  have  quite  understood  that  no  arrangement  of  ecclesiastical  rules 
and  rites  can  securely  guard  the  inner  church-life.  The  prelatical  sys¬ 
tem,  which  naturally  enough  grew  up  in  the  Empire  after  the  apostolic 
time,  and  which  gave  coherence  and  mutual  support  to  the  early  congre¬ 
gations,  has  sliown  itself  in  history,  and  in  its  only  positive  modern 
development,  in  fatal  sympathy  with  a  system  of  doctrine  which  appears 
as  unlike  the  majestic  and  tender  message  of  the  Gospels  as  the  gilded 
and  purpled  Alpine  ice  is  unlike  the  bloom  of  summer-gardens.  Even 
under  the  careful  restrictive  limitations  on  which  Protestantism  insists, 
it  hardly  supplies  substantive  support  to  a  distinctly  evangelical  teach¬ 
ing.  It  accepts  and  fosters  the  arts  of  beauty,  in  connection  with  its 
buildings;  it  diligently  cultivates  the  spirit  and  the  manner  of  devout¬ 
ness  in  worship ;  to  a  certain  extent  it  enriches  ceremonial,  and  adds 
stateliness  to  public  Church-councils ;  it  affords,  I  doubt  not,  \  aluable 
guidance  in  the  missionary  effort  of  a  communion  ;  it  makes  the  volun¬ 
tary  withdrawal  from  it  of  ministers  or  churches  more  difficult  and  con¬ 
vulsive;  and  sometimes  it  gives  a  higher  prominence,  a  wider  influence, 
to  fine  and  strong  character,  or  to  generous  culture,  in  its  principal 
officers.  But  it  seems  unable  to  exclude  from  its  pulpits  either  those 
who  treat  miracles  as  legends,  the  Word  of  God  as  largely  the  product 
of  a  human  literary  craft,  or  those  on  the  other  hand  who  copy  the  dress, 
emulate  the  manner,  mimic  the  rites,  and  covet  the  dogmas  of  Boman 
priests.  A  mere  ethical  theism,  and  a  carnal  or  mystical  doctrine  of 
grace  conveyed  upon  sacraments,  appear  equally  at  home  in  the  shelter 
of  its  chancels;  and  while,  for  the  most  part,  a  common  ritual  is  main¬ 
tained,  within  the  indulgent  hospitality  of  that  ritual  conflicting  opinions 
so  face  each  other  that  a  stranger  in  one  of  its  local  congregations  can 
scai’cely  be  assured  beforehand  whether  he  is  to  meet  a  self-asserting 
philosophy  of  doubt,  or  a  scheme  of  sacerdotal  manipulation,  which 
affronts  the  intelligence  and  scouts  the  Beformation,  or  a  clear  and 
delightful  exhibition  of  the  Gospel.  “  The  unity  of  the  Faith  ”  is  largely 
and  eloquently  eulogized  by  the  system,  but  it  is  by  no  means  guarantied. 


10 


DI8G0  URSE. 


On  the  other  hand,  it  must  equally  he  admitted  that  more  popular 
forms  of  Church-constitution,  approaching  more  nearly  the  Kevv  Testa¬ 
ment  plan,  are  liable  also  to  be  insidiously  invaded  or  forcibly  over¬ 
swept  by  the  insurgence  of  rash  speculation,  or  by  the  subtler  intrusion 
of  that  sceptical  spirit  which  begins  witli  doubt  and  ends  wdth  tiei’ce 
and  wide  denial.  The  only  real  barriers  against  either  of  these  must  be 
in  the  intelligent  and  experienced  faith  of  the  body  of  believers.  The 
essential  church-life,  undecaying,  invincible  to  assault,  can  rest  only  on 
the  immanent  grace  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  What  carries  disciples, 
churches,  or  communions  back  to  that,  in  simple  and  strong  reliance  of 
the  heart,  is  likeliest  to  keep  them  in  accord  with  the  Master,  and  in  the 
perennial  fellowship  of  the  Faith. 

While  honoring,  therefore,  the  scheme  of  Church-order  which  we 
have  inherited,  we  have  had  no  feud  with  any  other.  We  value,  for 
ourselves,  the  democratic  equality  of  members ;  the  open  church-meet¬ 
ings,  for  important  discussions;  the  wholly  unhindered  conference  of 
minds  in  the  weekly  religious  assemblies;  the  liberty  we  have  in  select¬ 
ing  and  arranging  our  forms  of  worship;  the  careful  provision  for  intel¬ 
ligent  church-discipline,  with  the  strict  (defenses  of  individual  rights  ; 
the  limited  trusts  committed  to  officers ;  and  the  insistence  on  personal 
leadership,  resulting  from  character,  knowledge,  consecration,  as  the 
warrant  and  measure  of  ministerial  privilege.  More  than  all,  we  value 
that  freedom  from  an  extreme  denominational  spirit  which  is  natural  to 
a  church  wdiich  governs  itself,  which  desires  that  others  should  govern 
themselves,  and  which  has  no  ambition  to  gratify  by  magnifying  the 
worth  and  extending  the  area  of  some  elaborate  external  scheme.  We 
have  loved  these  elements  and  traits  of  our  system,  and  have  felt 
that  they  wrought  beneficially  with  us ;  and  wm  have  rejoiced  to  aid  as 
we  could  in  fostering  similar  Church-institutions,  near  or  afar.  We 
have  been  sensitive  to  any  discredit  which  might  be  cast  on  them,  by 
what  appeared  the  unworthy  action  of  other  churches;  and  when  occa¬ 
sion  required  we  have  taken  some  risks,  accepted  some  censure — which 
has  done  us  no  harm — through  efforts  to  prevent  or  remove  such  dis¬ 
credit.  But  no  slur  or  suspicion  has  been  cast  by  this  church  on  the 
forms  of  organization  preferred  and  prevailing  in  other  communions — 
the  Presbyterian,  the  Methodist,  or  the  Episcopal.  We  have  frankly 
recognized  what  is  excellent  in  them,  and  have  seen  with  joy  the  growth 
and  prosperity  of  congregations  accustomed  to  them.  Interlaced  as  we 
are  with  such  congregations  by  innumerable  ties,  religious  and  social, 
our  relations  to  them  and  to  their  pastors  have  been  candid  and  con¬ 
fiding.  It  has  been  natural  that  they  should  be,  since  no  more  com- 


DISCOURSE. 


11 


plete  contradiction  can  be  fancied  of  the  fundamental  princi[)le  lying  at 
the  base  of  a  church  like  this  than  would  be  offered  by  any  denial  of 
the  liherty  of  others  to  associate  themselves  in  Christian  societies  as  they 
may  j)refer,  under  the  general  law  of  Christ.  A  partisan  temper,  a 
sharp  and  censorious  denominational  zeal,  must  be  to  ns  intensely  inap¬ 
propriate.  Any  one  of  our  households  might  as  well  insist  that  its 
neighbors  shall  live  just  like  itself,  and  dress  or  build  in  the  same  pre¬ 
cise  fashion.  Freedom  of  organization  for  Christian  congregations,  in 
connection  with  any  communion  they  select,  or  outside  of  any  if  they 
prefer,  is  a  principle  vital  to  our  scheme  of  order.  I  have  no  fear  that 
a  steadfast  attachment  to  our  way  of  working,  with  this  cordial  respect 
for  any  other  which  in  experience  may  prove  itself  effective,  will  ever 
here  languish  or  fail. 

While  the  church  has  continued  Congregational  in  order,  it  has 
also  remained  evangelical  in  faith,  and  has  shown  no  tendency  to  yield 
or  to  modify  the  convictions  of  the  truth,  august  and  transcendent,  in 
which  it  was  founded.  We  have  lived  side  by  side,  in  the  happiest 
fellowship  as  neighbors  and  friends,  with  the  families  of  the  Unitarian 
church,  which  was  here  before  ns;  we  have  delighted  to  unite  with 
them  in  many  large  and  beautiful  works ;  and  we  have  affectionately 
honored  their  pastors — him  who  already  had  passed  middle  life  when  I 
came  hither,  and  who  continues  among  us,  venerable  in  a  serene  age, 
and  him  who  succeeded  him  in  a  like  earnest  and  honorable  ministry, 
and  whom  we  regret  to  miss  henceforth  from  our  streets  and  societies. 
But  no  change  has  occurred  in  our  Faith,  bringing  it  to  a  closer  corre¬ 
spondence  with  theirs  ;  while  it  has  equally  remained  unaffected  by  any 
one  of  the  fugitive  opinions  which  during  our  time  have  taken  and  lost 
in  the  public  thought  a  transitory  prominence.  Our  Confession  of  Faith 
remains  what  it  was  ;  and  the  practical  power  of  the  system  of  doctrine 
articulated  in  it,  for  both  Minister  and  people,  is  as  positive  as  ever. 

The  impression  not  unfrequently  obtains  that  men  and  women  of 
cultivated  minds,  and  of  agreeable  social  surroundings,  are  losing  the 
hold  which  their  fathers  had  upon  the  peculiar  truths  of  the  Gospel,  and 
are  substituting  for  them  some  one  or  other  of  the  shifting  schemes  of 
rationalizing  thought  which  are  always  in  the  air.  But  certainly  such 
tendencies,  if  existing  among  us,  have  been  singularly  inert.  We  have 
had  our  full  proportion,  always,  of  those  generously  trained  in  semina¬ 
ries,  colleges,  and  the  higher  professional  schools,  at  home  and  abroad. 
Between  two  and  three  hundred  men  so  educated  have  been  personally 
known  to  me  as  attendants  on  our  worship,  the  majority  of  them  as 
communicants  in  the  church,  many  of  them  being  in  it  to-day.  They 


12 


DISCO  URSE. 


have  been  lawyers,  judges,  physicians,  editors,  authors,  teachers,  bankers, 
engineers,  merchants,  with  occasionally  retired  ministers,  of  our  com¬ 
munion  or  of  others.  At  tlie  same  time  among  the  cidtivated  women, 
who  have  also  had  the  special  advantage  of  a  generous  education,  have 
been  writers,  artists,  teachers,  as  well  as  honored  maidens  and  matrons. 
I  by  no  means  imply  that  all  of  these,  whether  men  or  women,  have 
held  with  clear  and  full  conviction  the  doctrine  here  maintained  and 
taught.  I  know  that  there  have  been  distinct  exceptions.  But  it  is  due 
to  the  truth  to  say  that  if  any  have  been  drawn  toward  attractive  spec¬ 
ulations  diverging  from  our  governing  Faith,  it  has  been  with  pain 
rather  than  with  pride ;  that  they  have  made  no  attempt  whatever  to 
unsettle  the  convictions  of  those  around  them  ;  and  that  most  of  those 
who  might  have  been  expected  to  feel  themselves  fettered  by  any  limi¬ 
tation  on  the  widest  wanderings  of  thought  have  been  as  firm  in  their 
allegiance  to  the  truth  here  set  forth  as  have  been  disciples  less  cul¬ 
tured  and  alert.  The  Faith  itself,  as  declared  by  the  church,  has 
suffered  no  chano’e. 

^  I 

The  Divine  authority  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has  been  from  the 
first  its  sovereign  element ;  with  the  connected  Divine  authority  of  the 
Scriptures  through  wdiich  He  is  declared  to  the  world.  With  the 
human  nature  which  plainly  appears  in  Him  we  see  united  the  essential 
personal  nature  of  God,  in  a  true  and  transcendent  Incarnation.  What 
He  declares  is,  therefore,  for  us  the  ultimate  truth  in  the  sphere  of 
religion.  His  precepts  present  for  our  minds  the  universal  and  eternal 
ethical  law.  Through  His  smiles  and  tears.  His  condemnation  of  evil, 
His  sympathy  with  grief.  His  desire  for  human  puiity  and  peace.  His 
beneficent  action,  the  heart  of  the  Infinite  is  manifest  to  us.  In  His 
work  of  Bedemption,  consummated  in  His  death,  by  the  blood  which 
was  shed  for  the  remission  of  sins,  by  the  life  which  w^as  given  for  the 
life  of  the  world,  the  Divine  compassions — rising  to  the  climax  of  stu¬ 
pendous  self-sacrifice — are  set  before  us,  in  intimate  coincidence  with 
immaculate  holiness.  The  sinfulness  of  man’s  nature,  with  the  doom 
he  has  incurred,  are  terrifically  illustrated  in  this  unparallelled  interven¬ 
tion  from  on  high,  which  was  the  condition  of  his  forgiveness.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  immortal  possibilities  of  the  soul,  for  character  and 
power,  are  sublimely  suggested  by  the  incalculable  offering  of  Himself, 
which  He  who  knew  that  soul  to  the  centre  was  ready  to  make  on  its 
behalf.  The  Besurrection,  the  Ascension,  and  the  present  celestial 
Kingship  of  the  Lord,  are  only  in  the  line,  and  on  the  majestic  inacces¬ 
sible  level,  of  all  the  associated  facts  of  His  life ;  and  to  us  they  are  as 
certain  as  are  stars  in  the  sky.  That  His  protnise  has  been  fulfilled  in 


DISCO  UnSE. 


13 


the  gift  of  the  grace  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  to  awaken,  renew,  and  bring 
men  to  blessed  fellowship  with  Himself,  is  a  fact  of  which  we  ai’e  certi¬ 
fied  by  observation,  are  certified,  I  trust,  by  onr  happy  experience.  We 
accept  His  statement  of  the  Judgment  to  come,  following  death,  at 
which  He  will  preside,  with  the  fair  and  clear  discriminations  of  charac¬ 
ter  there  to  be  made,  and  wdth  the  results  of  recompense  or  reward  for, 
which  Eternity  is  to  offer  the  sphere.  That  God  had  a  purpose,  from 
the  outset  of  history,  concerning  this  astonishing  mission  of  His  Son, 
we  cannot  doubt ;  nor  that  that  purpose  now  contemplates  the  effect  of 
it  in  the  world,  on  persons  and  on  peoples.  That  He  who  yielded  Him¬ 
self  to  the  Cross,  and  thereafter  arose  to  the  skies,  is  to  bring  His  King¬ 
dom  of  righteousness  and  peace  to  final  and  glorious  consummation  on 
earth,  we  are  joyfully  assured;  and  equally  tliat  in  supernal  realms  of 
light  and  triumph,  to  which  He  has  ascended,  a  home  is  prepared  for 
the  humblest  and  the  weakest  who  follow  Him  in  faith. 

This  Gospel  of  the  Christ  stands  apart,  to  our  thought,  from  every 
scheme  of  philosophy  or  ethics,  from  any  human  scheme  of  Keligion. 
We  accept  it  as  coming  from  the  mind  and  will  which  fashioned  the 
heavens,  and  wdiicli  here  have  interposed  to  give  direct  and  inestimable 
light  on  matters  of  immortal  concern.  If  any  one  asks,  “Do  you  fully 
comprehend  the  marvellous  fiicts  which  you  thus  affirm  ?  ”  we  cheerfully 
answ^er,  “  Certainly  not ;  any  more  than  we  understand  life,  or  mind, 
the  power  of  the  will,  or  the  secret  of  sunbeams ;  but  we  gladly  accept 
them,  on  what  to  us  is  the  clear  and  sure  witness  of  God.”  If  any  one 
asks,  “Are  you  not  staggered,  in  the  faculty  of  believing,  by  the  story 
of  Miracles?”  our  reply  is  immediate,  “  Certainly  not ;  since  we  recog¬ 
nize  in  them  a  Divine  power,  intervening  in  history,  on  an  adequate 
occasion,  for  a  purpose  as  sublime  as  are  the  amazing  means  employed ; 
and  we  can  no  more  set  limits  to  that  power  than  we  can  count  the 
moments  of  Eternity.”  Miracles,  from  God,  are  intrinsically  as  credible 
as  is  the  poem  or  the  picture  to  which  genius  gives  birth,  but  which  we 
cannot  rival.  The  only  questions  which  appear  to  us  pertinent  concern 
the  ends  which  they  subserve,  with  the  testimony  offered  for  them.  Oi’, 
if  we  are  asked,  “  How  the  Father  can  be  Divine,  the  Son  Divine,  and 
the  Spirit  Divine,  and  yet  but  one  God  fill  the  immensities?”  our 
answer  is,  that  the  mystery  only  enhances  to  our  thought  the  Infinite 
Glory,  and  opens  into  brighter  depths  the  wonders  of  that  exalted  state 
where  what  we  cannot  know  on  earth  shall  be  revealed  to  illuminated 
minds  and  purified  hearts. 

The  mystery  in  any  of  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  is  not  for  ns  a  bar 
to  believing.  It  is  rather  an  encouragement  to  such  belief;  since  we  do 


14 


DISCO  URSE. 


not  expect  to  compreliend  God,  or  to  learn  from  Him  what  is  simply 
commonplace.  In  accepting  such  truths  we  are  gratefully  conscious  of 
an  immediate  intellectual  contact  with  the  spiritual  sphere.  From 
realms  inaccessible  to  lenses  or  calculations  descend  upon  our  minds 
these  high  instructions.  We  seem  to  ourselves  to  communicate  with  the 
soul  from  which  ours  have  sprung,  and  before  which  extend  the  shining 
expanses  of  truth  and  of  life.  The  earth  becomes  sacred,  because  such 
revelations  have  opened  above  it  celestial  prospects.  The  order  of 
history  takes  its  vivid  interpretation  from  the  Divine  mission  central  in 
it ;  while  the  premonitions  of  glory  or  of  gloom  which  are  shot  upon 
responsive  spirits  from  the  coming  Immortality  add  solemnity  to  our 
wmrsh'ip,  and  the  supreme  intensity  to  our  life. 

We  have  been  conscious  of  no  burden  whatever,  and  of  no  confining 
limitations,  in  connection  with  onr  assured  conviction  of  these  primor¬ 
dial  and  superlative  truths.  The  conviction  has  been  imposed  upon  us 
by  no  outward  authority.  We  have  not  even  been  held  to  it  by  pleasant 
affiliations  with  a  wide  communion,  from  which  we  did  not  wish  to 
withdraw.  It  has  been  our  conviction  because  study  and  prayer,  inter¬ 
preting  the  Scriptures,  have  brought  us  to  it ;  because  it  corresponds 
with  whatever  is  loftiest  in  those  aspirations  which  lift  us  toward  God ; 
because  in  the  sternest  crises  of  life  its  voice  to  us  has  rung  as  with  the 
cheer  of  heavenly  trumpets  ;  because  we  have  found  in  it  the  profound 
and  sovereign  joy  of  our  souls.  Christianity  would  be  the  perpetual  and 
unparallelled  romance  of  the  world  if  it  v^ere  not  its  most  authoritative 
doctrine,  its  supremely  illumin ating  history.  In  their  duller  secular  moods 
it  may  doubtless  seem  to  men  distant  and  strange,  almost  unreal.  But 
in  the  higher  spiritual  states  of  feeling  and  thought  it  brings  its  own 
evidence,  intrinsic  and  commanding,  in  its  absolute  fitness  to  what  is 
most  tender  and  deep  in  desire,  most  exalted  in  hope,  most  affectionate 
and  exulting  in  our  consciousness  of  God. 

I^or  has  our  conviction  detained  us  from  any  excursions  of  thought,  in 
which  the  aspiring  mental  force  might  fruitfully  work  or  pla3dully 
disport.  I  know  of  no  congregation  in  which  minds  have  been  more 
open  than  in  this  to  whatever  light  science  can  give,  or  philosophy,  or 
history,  on  the  themes  of  chiefest  interest  to  man.  I  do  not  think  that 
you  ever  have  felt  that  the  pulpit  has  been  narrow  in  its  range,  imperious 
in  its  tone,  or  averse  to  considering  whatever  the  greater  minds  of  the 
world  have  thought  and  taught.  I  have  not  been  prodigal  of  historical 
or  philosophical  discussion.  I  have  wished  to  present  the  results  of 
thinking,  rather  than  the  processes  ;  the  gathered  metal,  instead  of  the 
lumps  of  earth  and  stone  in  which  it  had  been  lodged.  But  it  has  been 


DISCO  URSE. 


15 


part  of  the  business  of  iny  life  to  investigate  as  widely  and  impartially 
as  I  could  whatever  movements,  of  action  or  thought,  have  had  Cl)ristian 
sigiiiticance  ;  and  there  are  not  many  of  them  which  have  not  at  some 
time  here  been  traced.  But  nothing  in  all  this  has  tended  to  unsettle 
our  faith  in  the  Gospel,  or  to  prompt  us  to  displace  it  for  recent 
ambitious  and  showy  speculations.  On  the  contrary,  the  very  variety 
of  our  studies  has  shown  us  that  often  what  has  called  itself  light  has 
been  but  a  deceptive  glitter,  born  of  decay;  that  there  are  temporary 
fashions  in  thought,  as  there  are  in  dress,  or  in  the  building  of  houses ; 
that  opinions  which  loom  like  the  mass  of  continents  turn  out,  not  un- 
frecpiently,  to  be  vanishing  mists;  and  that  even  the  path  leading  to 
heaven,  which  the  Master  opens,  and  in  which  the  humble  may  joyfully 
walk,  may  be  hidden,  as  it  has  been,  by  fantastic  speculations  which 
one  age  produced  and  the  next  age  forgot. 

While  ready,  therefore,  to  welcome  instruction  from  any  quarter,  we 
have  not  gone  forth  on  restless  quests  after  new  theories.  It  seems  to 
us  a  temperate  belief,  warranted  by  the  Bible,  and  simply  just  to  the 
Author  of  that,  that  in  religion  as  in  science  the  supreme  facts  are  fixed, 
and  that  we  have  only  to  adjust  our  minds  to  them.  If  the  essential 
meaning  of  the  Gospel  is  not  evident  in  the  Scriptures,  and  has  not 
been  sufficiently  illustrated  in  the  vast  experience  and  the  intense 
many-sided  discussion  of  Christian  centuries,  it  is  idle  to  hope  for  cer¬ 
tainty  about  it.  Yet  in  such  certainty  is  the  spring  of  whatever  is 
noblest  in  action,  or  finest  and  divinest  in  achievements  of  character. 
While,  therefore,  attachment  to  the  centre  of  certainties  has  left  us  free 
for  untrammelled  speculation  on  themes  which  the  certainties  do  not 
cover — no  more  manacled  by  our  confidence  than  the  astronomer  is  by 
his  assurance  that  the  sun  is  a  globe  of  substance  and  fire,  not  a  painted 
balloon,  or  than  the  geographer  is  by  his  conviction  that  the  continents 
of  the  earth  are  not  mere  fringes  of  floating  foam — we  have  not  suffered 
from  that  vagrancy  of  mind  which  hates,  constitutionally,  to  rest  in 
conclusions ;  to  which  everything  grandest  and  most  serious  in  the  uni¬ 
verse  remains  a  moot  question ;  which  is  only  conscious  of  gladness  and 
force  when  in  unguided  motion  along  dim  and  perilous  tracks  of  thought ; 
and  which  is  almost  certain  to  bring  up  at  last,  where  Paul  says  that  in 
his  time  some  found  their  conclusion,  in  a  vain  jangling,”  under¬ 
standing  neither  what  they  say,  nor  whereof  they  confidently  affirm.” 

We  prefer  the  old  doctrine,  which  came  with  prelude  of  heavenly 
song,  which  He  who  is  The  Truth  declared,  which  conquered  the  ancient 
Pagan  society  as  sunshine  conquers  the  fierceness  of  frost,  which  has 
blessed  the  earth,  wherever  it  has  touched  it,  as  only  a  force  from 


16 


DISCO  URSE. 


heaven  could,  and  which  comes  to  us  commended  by  successions  of 
illustrious  lives,  as  well  as  by  the  memories  of  fathers  and  mothers 
whose  hearts  it  had  uplifted,  whose  personal  action  it  had  nobly  inspired. 
A  world  like  ours — which  is  not  made  up,  either  physically  or  morally, 
of  garden  and  greensward,  but  in  both  its  departments  is  rugged  with 
granite,  pestilent  with  morasses,  swept  by  storm-winds,  embosoming 
lire — needs  such  a  religion,  of  grace  and  of  marvel,  with  the  thunder  of 
Divine  authority  in  its  tones.  Blessed  be  God  that  for  ages  it  has  had 
it!  that  a  church  even  as  recent  as  this  is  knit  by  its  Faith  in  vital 
connection  with  the  churches  which  apostles  planted  and  watched !  A 
dignity  descends  on  its  young  life  from  beliefs  sublimely  honored  afore¬ 
time  by  confessors  and  martyrs.  It  is  spiritually  united,  according  to 
our  conception  of  things,  with  the  ever-expanding  Communion  of  Saints, 
waiting  on  earth,  triumphant  on  high ;  even  with  angelic  spirits  of 
light,  who  see  in  the  mission  of  the  Lord  of  the  Gospel,  more  than  in 
creation,  the  lovely  and  holy  mystery  of  God.  Ao  uncertain  order  of 
historical  occurrences,  no  imperfect  apparent  equivalence  of  forms, 
could  unite  us  in  a  fellowship  so  vital  and  prophetic  with  multitudinous 
fraternities  of  beautiful  souls.  Until  the  entire  life  of  the  church  has 
essentially  failed,  this  Faith  which  it  has  honored  can  no  more  lose  the 
place  of  preeminence  in  it  than  the  substance  of  the  walls  within  which 
it  worships  can  be  resolved  into  painted  glass  or  perishable  tissues. 

•It  is  related  in  the  memoirs  of  Bartoli,  one  of  the  distinguished 
Italian  antiquarians,  that  when  excavations  were  made  at  Borne  on  the 
Palatine  Hill,  at  about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  under 
the  pontificate  of  Innocent  Tenth,  a  chamber  was  found  lined  with 
a  brilliant  gold  brocade,  whose  rich  splendor  almost  dazzled  the  eye,  but 
which  faded  as  sunlight  streamed  upon  it,  till  the  fascinating  brilliance 
had  entirely  disappeared.  An  apartment  near  this  was  found  lined  with 
silver ;  and  another,  covered  with  sheets  of  lead.  The  silver  was 
eagerly  stripped  from  the  walls ;  the  lead  was  left.  But  when  after  a 
time  the  lead  was  removed,  unsuspected  riches  of  coined  gold  were 
found  securely  lodged  behind  and  hidden  by  it.  A  fair  image  seems 
here  presented  of  the  difterence  between  theories  which  superficially 
attract  and  transiently  dazzle,  or  schemes  of  opinion  which  have  a  value 
but  not  the  highest,  and  that  mystery  of  the  Gospel  which  l)ehind  a 
common  and  sober  aspect  conceals  inestimable  riches  of  .truth  and  of 
heavenly  j^romise.  These  riches  we  have  assiduously  sought.  I  trust, 
in  some  measure,  their  wealths  we  have  found. 

Of  the  general  character  of  the  public  teaching  which  has  here  been 
familiar  it  is  not  proper  for  me  to  speak,  except  as  a  few  words  may  be 


DISCO  URSE. 


17 


permitted  concerning  its  governing  aim  and  method.  Of  course,  with 
our  conception  of  the  Gospel,  of  the  Lord  whom  it  preseiits,  and  ol’  the 
essential  transformation  to  be  wrought  by  Him  in  the  spirit  of  man, 
forensic  teaching  is  not  the  chief  means  of  building  up  among  men  the 
kingdom  of  Clirist.  There  is  a  common  priesthood  of  believers,  which 
is  to  be  especially  exemplified  in  the  Pastor,  by  which  spiritual  impres¬ 
sion  passes  in  radiation  from  one  to  another,  and  a  soul  which  is  filled 
with  the  life  of  the  Master  communicates  that,  in  immediate  effluence, 
to  others  whose  centres  of  life  it  touches.  However  one  may  cpiestion 
the  rites  and  rules  of  an  earthly  organization  ari’Ogating  to  the  Minister 
the  priestly  preeminence  which  prelacy  offers,  he  may  and  he  must 
fulfill  his  duty  to  those  who  give  him  the  cure  of  souls  ”  by  such  direct 
mediation  for  Christ.  The  pastoral  office  has  in  this  its  perpetual  sig¬ 
nificance.  The  supremacy  of  character  over  learning  or  eloquence  in 
the  clerical  equipment  becomes  self-evident.  Courage,  patience,  gentle¬ 
ness,  reverence,  affectionateness  of  temper,  habitual  converse  with  things 
unseen,  these  are  more  needful  to  any  Minister  than  scholarship,  logic, 
or  an  educated  taste.  In  the  masterful  and  diffusive  energy  of  faith, 
pervading  his  life,  is  the  secret  and  measure  of  his  success.  His  first 
duty  is  to  keep  his  own  soul  in  instant  and  happy  alliance  with  the 
Lord,  that  he  may  sympathetically  transmit  to  others  the  gracious  and 
elevating  force  which  he  gains.  If  he  fails  in  this,  the  failure  is  vital, 
and  nothing  else  can  compensate  for  it.  But  with  this  is  also  closely 
associated  the  office  of  systematic  public  instruction  ;  and  how  this  has 
here  been  managed  I  may  briefly  remind  you. 

It  is  certainly  not  a  trifling  task  to  stand  week  by  week,  for  forty 
years,  in  the  presence  of  a  numerous  and  cultured  congregation,  and  to 
speak,  without  conscious  or  frequent  repetition,  on  subjects  not  always  of 
equal  importance,  but  always  lying  within  the  sphere  of  philosophical  or 
practical  religion.  In  so  prolonged  a  ministry  to  one  people  there  is 
danger  of  an  increasing  monotony  in  forms  of  expression,  and  in  the 
customary  modes  of  exhibiting  subjects,  with  a  greater  danger  of 
monotonous  recurrence  of  favorite  themes.  Against  the  first  danger 
I  guarded  myself,  as  far  as  I  could,  when  twenty  years  since  I  sub¬ 
stituted  sermons  prepared  with  care,  but  carefully  unwritten,  for  the 
manuscript  sermons  which  before  I  had  used.  This  was  not  the 
result  of  a  wish  to  save  labor — it  has  never  done  that ;  but  of  a 
desire  to  make  public  discourse  more  natural,  free,  and  flexibly  vigor¬ 
ous,  less  literary  in  tone,  more  direct  and  energetic.  Imperfect  as 
the  success  has  been,  it  has  been  sufficient,  to  my  apprehension,  to 
justify  the  change.  Against  the  second  danger,  of  limitation  in  range 


18 


DI8C0  URSE. 


of  thought,  the  congregation  made  watchful  provision  when  it  arranged 
the  Pastor's  Study  as  a  permanent  part  of  its  house  of  worship,  and 
when,  subsequently,  without  solicitation,  it  laid  the  foundation  of  a 
Pastoral  Librarjq  to  whicji  ^annual  appropriations  have  since  been 
made,  and  which  has  become  a  rich  collection  of  valuable  books,  in 
various  languages,  especially  helpful  to  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  or 
of  those  significant  developments  in  history  which  illustrate  the  progress 
of  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  plan  of  teaching  thus  suggested  it  has 
been  my  aim,  though  with  an  imperfection  which  no  one  can  have  seen 
more  clearly  than  myself,  to  carry  out. 

I  have  always  had  in  view  a  various  instruction,  for  myself  as  for 
you,  proceeding  through  years,  rather  than  any  rapid  succession  of 
startling  appeals,  such  as  might  have  been  appropriate  in  a  promiscuous 
and  unstable  congregation  ;  an  instruction,  too,  on  themes  pertaining 
to  the  spiritual  life,  rather  than  on  matters  of  temporary  interest,  which 
may  be  more  aptly  and  sufficiently  treated  on  platforms  or  in  journals. 

I  may  perhaps  fairly  say,  with  the  assurance  of  your  assent,  that  the 
primary  and  inspiring  aim  of  this  ministry  has  been  to  set  distinctly 
before  you  the  Son  of  God,  in  His  tenderness  and  Ilis  majesty.  His 
unique  personality.  His  supreme  offices.  His  welcoming  invitations,  in 
His  proper  lordship  over  the  world,  and  in  that  glory  with  the  Father 
to  which  He  ascended,  and  into  which  He  receives  those  who  follow 
Him  in  faith.  This  general  purpose  has  practically  subordinated  all 
things  to  itself,  and  has  given  to  the  preaching  its  motive  and  rule.  Of 
course,  in  the  protracted  and  passionate  debate  on  African  Slavery  this 
pulpit  was  not  silent,  conceiving  that  question  to  belong  to  Christianity, 
not  only  or  chiefly  to  secular  statesmanship.  In  the  storm  and  stress 
of  the  Civil  \Yar,  it  was  needful  that  constant  succors  be  ministered  to 
spirits  which  would  have  felt  too  deeply  the  scathe  and  scar  of  the  fiery 
contest,  unless  protected  by  confidence  in  Him  to  whose  sublime  plans 
for  the  welfare  of  the  world  the  victory  of  Liberty  appeared  indispen¬ 
sable.  In  the  presence,  too,  of  great  tragic  events — the  conflagration  of 
cities,  the  swoop  of  pestilence,  the  assassination  of  Presidents,  the  death 
of  men  illustrious  in  our  history — the  discussions  of  the  pulpit  have  fol¬ 
lowed,  while  seeking  to  elevate  and  enlighten,  the  thought  of  all  minds. 
Hut,  in  general,  the  public  teaching  here  has  been  limited  to  themes  of 
a  spiritual  significance,  especially  to  the  person  and  the  offices  of  Christ, 
and  to  the  nature  and  immortal  effects  of  the  faith  which  associates  the 
soul  with  Him.  It  has  been  felt  that  herein  lies  the  power  to  bless 
men,  and  to  lift  them  toward  God  ;  not  in  the  realms  of  philosophical 
discussion,  or  amid  the  wide  outlying  spaces  of  archaeological  inquiry,  or 


DISCO URSK 


19 


on  any  chance  lines  of  eccentric  thought.  The  written  Word,  setting 
forth  in  fullness  the  living  Word,  that  is  the  power  of  God  to  salvation  ; 
though  no  one  can  know  so  fully  as  does  he  who  tries  to  exhibit  it  how 
true  are  the  lines  of  George  Herbert, — 

“  Oil,  that  I  knew  how  all  thy  lights  combine. 

And  the  configurations  of  their  glory  ! 

Seeing  not  only  how  each  verse  doth  shine, 

But  all  the  constellations  of  the  story  !  ” 


Even  the  ethical  and  political  questions  which  constantly  challenge 
public  attention  have  not  here  been  largely  treated.  This  has  not  been 
accidental,  but  the  fruit  of  a  distinct  intention.  If  any  things  are  plain 
on  the  face  of  the  'New  Testament  this  seems  to  be  among  them,  that 
neither  the  Lord  nor  His  apostles  entered  as  disputants  into  the  political 
arena  of  their  time,  or  undertook,  by  particular  precepts,  to  control  and 
direct  the  action  of  disciples  in  secular  affairs.  A  thousand  questions  of 
personal  practice,  in  regard  to  amusements,  social  customs,  business 
occupations,  the  household  life,  the  duties  of  men  in  their  public  rela¬ 
tions,  were  as  prominent  then,  and  in  the  centuries  which  immediately 
followed,  as  they  have  been  since ;  and  a  sentence  from  the  Master,  or 
from  either  apostle,  upon  such  questions,  would  have  saved  prolonged 
and  perplexing  debate.  But  the  sentence  was  not  spoken.  They  insist 
upon  the  duties  of  chastity,  temperance,  honesty,  industry,  fidelity  to 
obligations,  abstinence  from  impure  associations  with  the  world,  a  sys¬ 
tematic  effort  for  holiness  in  the  spirit ;  but  beyond  this  their  plan  is  to 
push  the  impression  of  celestial  realities,  and  of  man’s  need  of  trans¬ 
figuring  grace,  into  the  intimate  conviction  of  men ;  to  bring  them  thus 
to  penitent  faith,  to  heavenly  hopes,  and  to  a  conscious  fellowship  with 
the  Lord;  and  then  to  leave  the  new  moral  life,  so  quickened  and 
instructed,  to  work  itself  out,  in  individual  expression,  in  their  several 
social  relations  and  activities.  The  ground  rule  is  always  the  same : 

If  thine  eye  be  single,  thy  wdiole  body  will  be  full  of  light.”  The 
end  aimed  at  is  always  the  same :  That  ye  should  show  forth  the 
praises  of  Him  who  hath  called  you  out  of  darkness  into  His  marvel¬ 
lous  light.”  I  conceive  this  method  the  true  one,  lying,  in  fact,  at  the 
foundation  of  personal  moral  education,  and  of  Christian  civilization  ; 
and  while  I  have  always  exercised  the  right  of  free  election  and  unfet¬ 
tered  action,  in  matters  of  civic  or  social  concern,  I  have  left  others  as 
free  as  myself,  and  have  not  sought  to  use  the  pulpit  for  furthering  my 
particular  opinions.  I  am  utterly  certain  that  the  one  thing  essential  to 
a  just  and  noble  conduct  of  life,  such  as  honors  the  Lord,  and  prepares, 
for  a  career  on  higher  levels,  is  the  sense  in  men  of  the  greatness  of 


20 


DISCO  DESK 


Immortality,  of  tlie  glory  of  Christ,  and  of  their  personal  relationship 
to  Him  as  Saviour  and  Judge.  Whatever  commends  itself  to  the 
believing  and  loving  heart,  under  this  illumination,  cannot  offend  the 
law  of  the  Spirit.  To  substitute  for  it  any  precise  rubrical  code  of 
mandatory  maxims  does  equal  dishonor  to  the  servant  and  to  the  Lord. 

Even  on  themes  touching  directly  the  spiritual  life,  I  have  felt  that 
a  congregation  constituted  like  this  needed  thoughtful  suggestion,  with 
the  persuasions  of  careful  argument,  quite  as  much  as  any  immediate 
stress  of  appeal.  Archbishop  What ely  has  forcibly  said  that  the  appeal 
of  a  discourse  is  to  its  argument  what  the  edge  of  a  sabre  is  to  its  back. 
If  the  blade  is  all  edge,  it  will  break  at  a  stroke ;  if  all  back,  the  blunt 
w'eapon  will  bruise  but  not  cut.  This  fairly  applies  to  the  structure  of 
a  sermon  ;  and  while  earnest  exhortation  has  not,  I  am  sure,  been 
wanting  here,  I  have  desired  to  make  no  appeal  which  had  not  been 
justified  by  a  fair  and  sufficient  intellectual  process.  Perhaps  I  have 
erred  in  seeking  too  uniformly  to  enlist  the  judgment  before  attempting 
to  animate  feeling.  I  wholly  agree  with  wdiat  Mr.  Longfellow  once 
said :  To  me  a  sermon  is  no  sermon  in  wdiich  I  cannot  hear  the  heart 

beat as  I  also  agree  with  the  remark  of  another,  which  he  quoted 
with  approval,  that  “it  is  useless  to  apply  the  reasoning  faculties  to 
things  beyond  their  jurisdiction,  in  the  realm  of  the  affections.”  But 
the  general  tone  of  the  teaching  here  has  seemed  properly  indicated  by 
the  character  of  the  church,  as  a  permanent  assembly  of  associated 
cultured  Christian  households.  It  has  not  had  it  for  its  aim  to  silence 
the  gainsaying,  to  rebuke  the  blaspheming,  or  to  startle  the  ribald  assail¬ 
ant  of  the  Gospel.  It  has  been  educational,  more  than  hortatory  ;  an 
appeal  to  the  moi*al  reason  of  men,  and  to  their  capacity  for  spiritual 
affection,  rather  than  to  their  excited  sensibilities.  Variety  has  been 
sought,  in  theme  and  treatment,  rather  than  intensity  of  particular 
appeal.  The  tone  of  the  pulpit  has  been  one,  I  trust,  of  affirmative 
conviction,  with  an  eager  desire  for  the  welfare  of  men,  and  the  honor 
of  the  Lord  ;  but  it  has  not  been,  as  it  well  might  have  been  in  a  differ¬ 
ent  environment,  of  rebuking  remonstrance,  of  sharp  invective  against 
offensive  opinions,  or  of  continually  exciting  admonition. 

The  tone  of  Christian  feeling  prevailing  in  the  church  has  been 
appropriate  to  the  Faith  which  it  has  honored,  and  to  the  general  char¬ 
acter  of  the  teaching  through  which  that  Faith  has  been  set  forth. 
While  characteristically  cheerful  and  hopeful,  confident  and  courageous, 
rather  thoughtful  than  sentimental,  rather  strong  in  ])urpose  than  quick 
in  emotion,  it  has  been  also  sympathetic,  energetic,  often  impassioned, 
always  intelligently  and  adoringly  devout.  I  speak  of  it  with  assurance. 


DISCO  UR8E. 


21 


because  I  have  watched  it  so  many  years.  There  have  been  times  in 
our  history  when  fervor  of  feeling  rose  to  intensity,  and  when  the  swing 
of  an  impulsive  enthusiasm  was  in  all  the  religious  activity  of  the 
church.  We  have  only  to  regret  that  such  seasons  have  not  been  more 
frequent,  that  such  states  of  feeling  have  not  been  permanent.  There 
have  been  individuals  among  us,  often,  in  whom  the  sorrowful  sense  of 
sin,  justified  by  their  view  of  the  Divine  holiness,  has  pierced  and  trans¬ 
fixed  the  sensitive  spirit,  making  it  for  the  time  wholly  incapable  of 
confident  hope ;  and  there  have  been  others  in  whom  a  certain  mystical 
rapture — what  they  felt  to  be  a  miraculous  peace — has  followed  grief, 
preceded  great  duty,  become  the  incentive  to  great  endurance,  or  the 
reward  of  supreme  consecration.  Sometimes,  especially  at  the  sacrament, 
the  very  air  of  the  church  has  seemed  charged  with  an  influence  from  the 
unmeasured  majesty,  from  the  beauty  beyond  thought,  of  worlds  unseen. 
It  has  seemed  to  us  then  as  if  the  rush  of  angelic  plumes  were  not 
far  oft*;  as  if  gleams  were  shot  upon  our  faces  from  gates  of  pearl. 

But  in  general  the  tone  of  feeling  here  has  been,  as  I  have  said,  if 
not  always  intense,  yet  not,  on  the  other  hand,  inert  or  intermittent.  It 
has  been  liberal,  conscientious,  resolute,  hopeful ;  with  its  penitence 
suffused  by  the  light  of  the  promises;  its  enterprise  inspired  by  the 
sense  of  accordance  with  a  Divine  plan  ;  its  affection  exalted  by  the 
clear  apprehension  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  Lord  ;  its  quietness  of  spirit 
replenished  by  assurance  of  His  supremacy.  The  temper  which  counts 
service  a  joy  has  been  combined  in  it  with  the  sweet  expectation  wdiich 
finds  the  coining  celestial  felicities  predicted  in  the  heart,  as  well  as 
foreshadowed  in  the  images  of  prophecjy,  and  sublimely  foretold  by  the 
Cross.  I  like  the  vital  restfulness  of  this  cluirch,”  a  lady  said  to  me 
years  ago,  who  had  recently  come  to  it :  seem,  when  I  worship  here, 

to  be  girt  about  by  invisible  helps,  with  the  spirit  braced  on  eternal 
realities.”  “  I  go  from  the  church,”  many  have  said,  ‘‘  feeling  more 
distinctly  my  immortal  relations,  with  life  more  noble  and  sacred  than 
before.”  I  have  felt  the  same  influence  often  present,  in  private  as  well 
as  in  public  ministrations.  It  has  faced  me  amid  scenes  as  startling  and 
sad  as  one  ever  meets  on  the  pages  of  romance.  It  has  been  an  elixir 
of  life  to  the  weak,  and  has  conquered  and  dispersed  the  shadows  of 
death.  Radiant  and  memorable  has  been  its  expression  on  the  faces  of 
those  who  across  the  crumbling  edges  of  time  were  looking  to  the 
Immensities,  wherein  the  Lord,  sovereign  and  tender,  seemed  to  rise 
before  them  in  palpable  presence.  There  have  been  emergencies  in  not 
a  few  lives,  of  those  present  or  gone,  where  nothing  could  have  helped 
except  the  religion  here  familiar.  There  are  rooms  in  the  city  in  which 


22 


DISCO  URSE. 


has  appeared  an  almost  visible  glory,  as  from  shining  salients  pushed 
forth  in  front  of  heavenly  walls.  If  any  one  has  needed  a  fresh  illus¬ 
tration  of  the  power  of  the  Gospel,  under  God’s  grace,  to  inspire  and 
nurture  a  spiritual  life  distinct  from  anything  which  society  produces, 
or  wdiich  learning,  ethics,  and  art  inspire,  I  cannot  hut  feel  that  here  it 
has  been  offered. 

A  church  constituted  like  this,  and  free  for  any  action  which  may  tend 
to  invigorate  and  enrich  its  church-life,  has  naturally  made  its  Order  of 
Worship  represent  its  own  judgment  as  to  what  for  it  would  be  ha])piest 
and  best.  Without  haste,  but  with  the  timely  and  plastic  touch  of  an 
intelligent  choice,  it  has  shaped  and  expanded  this,  till,  without  departing 
essentially  or  largely  from  that  adopted  in  other  churches  of  a  non- 
prelatical  constitution,  the  social  element  takes  an  increased  prominence 
in  it,  and  the  office  of  worship  becomes  one  of  common  concern  and 
attractive  dignity,  not  a  mere  incident  to  the  preaching  of  sermons. 

No  prescribed  forms  of  prayer  have  been  used  among  us,  except  as 
the  prayer  of  General  Supplication  is  closed  with  the  Lord’s  Prayer,  in 
wdiich  the  congregation  audibly  unites.  Even  this  seemed  at  first,  to 
some  who  had  been  bred  in  the  Puritan  traditions,  an  innovation  of  a 
questionable  nature.  But  a  general  feeling,  reverent  and  resolute, 
insisted  upon  it,  more  than  twenty  years  since.  The  responsive  reading 
of  the  Psalms,  at  each  service,  by  the  Pastor  and  the  people,  was  asso¬ 
ciated  with  this ;  and,  at  a  later  time,  the  recital  together  of  the  Apostles’ 
Creed.  The  Gloria  Patri,  which  follows  the  Creed,  appropriately 
closes  the  opening  worship,  which  is  exclusively  of  prayer  and  praise, 
with  the  direct  Divine  instruction  conveyed  by  a  lesson  from  the 
Scripture.  The  sermon  which  is  to  follow  is  preceded  by  a  hymn  sung 
by  the  choir  as  a  prelude  to  it,  not  by  the  congregation  as  an  act  of 
praise.  In  rendering  this  hymn  the  choir  has  a  ministerial  office, 
peculiar  to  itself,  of  inspiring  power,  and  of  delightful  significance. 
When  sung  with  tenderness  or  majestic  force,  to  music  sympathetically 
selected  or  arranged,  such  a  hymn  has  had  often  a  memorable  effect, 
touching  the  heart  with  the  pathos  of  penitence,  or  with  glad  aspiration, 
sometimes  opening  the  heavens  more  clearly  before  us,  through  distincter 
vision  of  the  Lord  on  His  throne,  and  of  the  great  Immortality.  I  have 
been  consciously  animated  by  it  to  speak  to  congregations  into  whose 
minds  it  had  put  a  hue  and  powerful  impulse.  With  devout  feeling 
matching  and  crowning  its  musical  culture,  a  choir  has  power,  by  such 
a  service,  to  illuminate  and  impress  the  following  sermon,  perhaps 
beyond  its  own  conception.  Worthily  performed,  its  office,  on  the 
earthly  levels,  is  like  that  of  the  shining  ministering  spirits  who  stand 


DISCO  URSE. 


23 


before  God,  and  who  go  from  His  presence  on  wings  whose  every  beat 
is  music,  to  speak  glad  tidings  to  the  Church  and  the  World. 

Aside  from  this  choir-hymn,  giving  musical  i^endering  to  a  theme  or 
feeling  prelusive  to  the  sermon,  and  aside  from  an  opening  anthem  in 
the  evening,  the  singing  of  the  church  is  a  popular  service,  led  by  the 
choir,  from  the  Doxology  with  which  it  commences,  to  the  evening 
Doxology  with  which  it  concludes.  In  the  evening,  after  the  read¬ 
ing  of  the  Psalter,  a  chant  takes  the  place  of  the  Creed ;  but  it  is  one 
of  a  brief  series  of  permanent  chants,  sung  to  appropriate  ecclesiastical 
music,  in  which  the  assembled  worshippers  unite.  It  is  never  intended 
for  artistic  display,  or  to  serve  as  the  vehicle  of  musical  novelties. 

The  changes  thus  gradually  made  have  not  been  designed,  as  they 
are  not  adapted,  to  make  our  worship  more  ornamental,  or  more  agree¬ 
able  to  an  importunate  esthetic  taste.  On  the  other  hand,  each  par¬ 
ticular  of  change  has  been  subordinated  to  the  constant  purpose  of 
making  the  worship  more  reverent  and  sympathetic,  and  of  engaging 
the  largest  number  to  take  personal  part  in  it.  Of  course,  the  changes 
have  not  been  designed  to  assimilate  our  mode  of  worship  to  that 
obtaining  in  any  communion  using  a  liturgy  ;  for  to  this,  also,  they  are 
not  adapted.  We  are  not  insensible  to  the  various  excellences  of  the 
Anglican  liturgy:  its  venerable  associations,  its  rhythmic  forms,  the 
majestic  cadences  of  its  prayer  and  praise,  the  suggestions  and  incen¬ 
tives  of  devout  feeling  infolded  in  phrases  some  of  which  it  transports 
from  the  age  of  the  Catacombs.  Familiarity  with  it  is  part  of  our 
English  inheritance ;  and  we  quite  understand,  if  we  do  not  share,  the 
affectionate  regard  for  it  of  those  who  would  nowise  give  it  up,  though 
they  anxiously  desire  to  make  it  more  flexible,  and  to  add  richness  to 
it.  But  for  ourselves  we,  as  a  body,  distinctly  prefer  a  form  of  worship 
in  which  prayer  shall  be  free,  offered  by  the  Minister  according  to  his 
ability,”  as  it  was  in  the  day  of  Justin  Martyr,  uttering  directly  the 
heart  of  the  speaker  to  Him  who  heareth,  and  carrying  up  the  hearts  of 
others  on  the  fervent  pleading  of  personal  desire ;  yet  in  which,  also, 
the  social  element  shall  have  its  proper  and  permanent  place,  children 
taking  part  in  it  with  their  parents,  and  the  assembled  Christian  house¬ 
holds,  united  in  faith,  and  in  the  service  of  grateful  adoration,  lifting 
spirit  and  voice  in  common  praise.  The  flower  is  no  more  truly  deter¬ 
mined,  in  form  and  fragrance,  by  the  seed  from  which  it  springs,  than 
is  our  particular  Order  of  Worship  by  the  social  and  spiritual  character 
and  culture  of  the  church  which  has  shaped  it.  If  it  should  ever  be 
further  modified,  this  will  certainly  be  done  under  the  same  controlling 
law.  It  is  gratifying  to  see  how  surely  and  widely  a  similar  spirit  in 


24 


DISCO  URSE. 


other  churches  is  working  itself  into  similar  expression.  In  this,  as  in 
all  departments  of  life,  the  variety  and  richness  of  diversified  unity  are 
the  natural  fruit  of  intelligent  freedom. 

It  is  another  tendency  natural  to  a  church  constituted  like  this,  and 
developed  along  its  special  lines,  to  attach  peculiar  tenderness  and 
sacredness  to  the  Baptism  of  children,  to  invest  this  with  forms  of  a 
gracious  solemnity,  and  to  follow  it  with  a  service,  separate  from  itself, 
yet  allied  and  supplemental.  The  days  on  which  the  rite  is  adminis¬ 
tered  are  those  on  which,  at  a  later  hour,  the  Lord’s  Supper  is  celebrated. 
The  initial  rite  has  its  proper  ylace  in  tlie  front  of  the  Morning  Service, 
succeeding  directly  the  Invocation.  While  the  parents,  with  their  chil¬ 
dren,  are  assembling  at  the  font,  organ  and  choir  fill  the  church  with  a 
welcoming  chant.  Before  the  baptism  a  public  Covenant  is  accepted 
by  the  parents,  with  God  and  with  the  Church,  pledging  them  to  train 
the  children  whom  they  present  in  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  and  for 
His  glory.  After  the  baptism,  and  the  following  prayer,  a  closing  chant 
is  sung  by  the  choir,  as  the  parents  withdraw.  The  name  of  each  child, 
with  the  date  of  its  birth,  the  date  of  its  baptism,  and  with  the  names 
of  its  ])arents,  is  permanently  recorded  on  the  Register  of  the  church. 

So  far,  no  doubt,  the  service  in  substance  corresponds  with  that 
observed  in  other  churches,  our  only  aim  being  to  make  as  distinct  and 
impressive  as  we  may  the  import  and  the  promise,  the  sweetness  and  the 
dignity,  which  belong  to  the  rite.  But  when  the  children  so  baptized 
have  reached  the  age  of  seven  years,  they  are  met  by  an  additional 
service,  arranged  specially  for  them,  to  remind  them  that  the  church 
holds  them  in  its  remembrance  and  its  affectionate  hope,  and  that  it 
desires  to  open  before  them,  plainly  and  fully,  the  Way  of  Life.  On 
the  opening  Sunday  of  each  new  year  those  who  during  the  preceding 
year  have  passed  from  infancy  into  childhood  are  again  assembled, 
around  the  font  at  which  they  were  baptized,  and  each  receives  from 
the  hand  of  the  Pastor  a  copy  of  the  Scriptures,  in  a  beautiful  and 
complete  English  edition,  presented  to  it  on  behalf  of  the  church.  On 
the  cover  this  bears  the  inscription,  “  The  Church  of  the  Pilgrims,  to  a 
Child  of  the  Covenant.”  On  the  inside  the  name  of  the  child  is  writ¬ 
ten,  with  the  date  of  its  birth,  the  date  of  its  baptism,  and  the  signature 
of  the  Pastor.  After  the  Bibles  have  been  distributed,  with  a  flower- 
token  to  every  child,  a  prayer  is  offered, — of  thanksgiving  for  the  con¬ 
tinued  life  of  those  thus  reassendded,  of  renewed  consecration  of  each 
of  them  to  the  Lord,  with  supplication  for  His  blessing  upon  them, 
upon  the  households  from  which  they  come,  and  upon  the  church  to 
which  they  are  bound  by  sacred  ties,  and  with  tender  remembrance  of 


DISCO  URSE. 


25 


those  before  whose  tearful  eyes  the  occasion  brings  up  the  vanished 
forms  of  children  similarly  consecrated  as  babes,  and  already  gone  to  be 
with  the  saints.  The  Pastor,  for  the  church,  greets  each  child  with 
a  holy  kiss ;  ”  and  after  the  benediction  they  are  again  dispersed  to 
their  places,  in  the  joyful  expectation  that  they  will  stand,  in  after 
years,  in  an  equal  group,  before  the  Table  of  the  Lord,  and  tinally  at 
II  is  Marriage  Supper. 

I  know  that  we  shall  unite  in  saying  that  no  service  known  among 
us  is  more  delightful  or  impressive  than  this ;  and  certainly  no  copies 
of  the  Bible,  in  the  hands  of  the  young,  or  of  those  who  having  received 
them  in  childhood  still  retain  them  in  middle  life,  are  more  fondly 
prized  or  more  affectionately  used.  In  not  a  few  instances  a  child  dying 
in  faith  and  hope  has  wished  the  last  words  read  in  its  hearing,  or  read  l)y 
its  coffin,  to  be  read  from  its  beloved  “  Church  Bible.”  I  only  wonder 
that  the  custom  observed  here  for  many  years,  and  which  will  here 
be  as  permanent  as  the  church,  has  not  been  elsewhere  and  widely 
adopted. 

It  is  only  natural  that  this  care  for  the  children  nurtured  in  our 
households  should  extend  to  the  Sunday  School,  and  provide  therein  for 
their  assiduous  Christian  training.  It  has  sometimes  been  the  fact,  it 
may  be  still  in  some  congregations,  that  the  Sunday  School  is  in  a  large 
measure  independent  of  the  church,  having  rules,  officers,  and  methods 
of  its  own,  with  a  distinctly  self-centred  life  which  repels  instead  of 
inviting  or  welcoming  church-supervision.  I  have  no  present  criticism 
to  make  upon  such  an  arrangement.  I  speak  of  it  only  to  emphasize 
the  difference  in  the  relations  with  which  we  are  familiar  between  the 
church  and  the  school.  Here,  the  teaching  body  is  simply  the  church 
itself,  acting  through  selected  representative  members,  to  assist  parents 
in  training  the  young  in  spiritual  things.  The  Superintendent  and 
Assistant  Superintendent  must,  by  our  rules,  be  members  of  the  church, 
who  have  previously  bad  experience  in  the  school ;  they  can  be  desig¬ 
nated  only  by  those,  also  members  of  the  church,  who  have  been  asso¬ 
ciated  with  them  in  teaching;  and  this  primary  election  is  not  valid 
until  conlirmed  by  the  church,  at  its  annual  meeting.  The  school,  by 
its  constitution,  is  under  the  constant  oversight  of  the  church,  with 
more  of  responsibility  committed  to  the  Pastor  in  connection  with  its 
work  than  he  has  always  been  able  to  meet.  Its  reports  are  annually 
presented  to  the  church,  and  become  a  part  of  its  permanent  records. 

It  has  thus  come  to  pass  that  the  officers  of  tbe  school  have  uni¬ 
formly  been  of  the  most  honored  and  beloved  in  the  church ;  that  the 
beautiful,  commodious,  and  stately  home-cha])el  appropriated  to  it  has 


26 


DISCO  URSE. 


been  emphatically  the  Children’s  Chnrch ;  and  that  many  have  come 
from  it,  and  are  all  the  time  coming,  to  sit  wdth  ns  at  the  holy  Lord’s 
Supper.  The  home-school  of  a  chnrch  like  this  can  never  be  remark¬ 
able  for  ninnbers.  It  has  no  adjacent  mission-field.  Its  range  is  limited 
to  the  circuit  of  the  parish  ;  and  the  number  of  households  embraced  in 
this,  living  in  convenient  proximity  to  the  church,  and  including  young 
children,  is  not  in  the  nature  of  the  case  very  large,  lumbers,  too, 
pass  out  of  the  school,  year  by  year,  to  chapel  or  mission,  to  take  on 
themselves  the  work  of  teaching,  leaving  places  not  always  at  once 
supplied.  The  schools  which  reckon  their  pupils  by  thousands  would 
therefore  think  ours,  with  an  average  of  perhaps  three  hundred  mem¬ 
bers,  extremely  small.  But  what  we  aim  at,  and  feel  for  us  to  be  indis¬ 
pensable,  is  that  the  spiritual  life  of  the  church  shall  pervade  and  ani¬ 
mate  the  school,  while  the  school,  on  the  other  hand,  shall  refresh, 
replenish,  and  continue  that  life,  adding  to  our  membership,  while  add¬ 
ing  all  the  time  to  the  knowledge,  faith,  and  fervor  of  the  church.  I 
gladly  testify  that  in  a  measure  veiw  gratifying  certainly,  if  not  unusual, 
these  effects  have  here  been  attained.  Scholars  have  found,  as  well  as 
teachers,  that 

“  Sundays  tlie  pillars  are 
On  which  Heaven’s  palace  arched  lies.” 

Those  Sundays  have  been  made  lovelier  to  their  hearts  by  the  sweet 
and  gracious  instruction  which  has  met  them,  in  things  Divine  ;  and  into 
many  households,  as  into  my  own,  has  come  an  influence,  beautiful  and 
strong,  from  the  teaching  and  prayer,  and  the  jubilant  praise,  of  the  Sun¬ 
day  School  chapel.  The  church  of  the  future  is  there  being  all  the  time 
trained  and  moulded  by  the  church  of  the  present,  to  follow,  and  I  trust 
to  surpass  it. 

A  few  words  may  not  be  improper  upon  the  social  character  of  the 
church.  Composed  as  it  is  of  Christian  households,  associated  through 
their  faith  in  the  Master,  by  their  purpose  to  serve  Him,  and  their 
desire  to  rise  through  Him  into  a  nobler  spiritual  life,  it  ought  to  be 
pervaded  by  social  s^mipathies  quick  and  constant,  knitting  all  in 
delightful  union,  and  growing  more  intimate  as  the  years  pass  on.  In  a 
measure  such  natural  expectations  have  been  realized  here,  if  not  in  any 
ideal  completeness.  We  may  hope  that  they  point  to  a  yet  more  full 
and  charming  development,  to  be  reached  by  and  by. 

Undoubtedly,  if  any  have  come  to  us,  as  some  perhaps  did  come  in 
our  earlier  history,  expecting  an  instant  effervescence  of  welcome,  as  to 
those  whose  aid  was  imminently  needed,  they  have  been  disappointed, 
and  may  have  felt  that  the  spirit  of  the  church  was  indifferent  and  cool. 


DISCO  URSE. 


27 


I  am  sadly  aware,  too,  that  excellent  families  who  have  tarried  with  ns 
perhaps  for  years,  but  who  have  taken  no  personal  part  in  our  social  re¬ 
unions,  or  in  the  interior  activities  of  the  church,  have  felt  something  of 
reserve  in  its  temper  and  tone,  and  have  missed  the  subtile  and  cordial 
sympathies  for  which  they  had  looked.  Xor  do  I  by  any  means  imply 

that  we  have  been  without  fanlt  in  this.  We  live  in  an  incessant  hurrv  of 

«/ 

affairs,  at  a  centre  upon  which  converge  the  lines  of  continental  enter¬ 
prise,  amid  the  unceasing  and  imperious  demands  of  business  and 
society.  It  is  not  easy  to  know,  personally,  all  whom  we  should  be  glad 
to  know ;  while  the  intimate  affiliations  of  sympathizing  minds  must 
always  be  personal,  not  official,  the  spontaneous  fruit  of  mutual  acquaint¬ 
ance,  not  the  purposed  result  of  a  conscious  effort.  The  very  perma¬ 
nence  of  such  a  congregation  involves  a  danger,  limiting  or  menacing 
at  just  this  point  the  richest  development  of  the  common  church-life. 
Families  long  associated  in  it  become  by  degrees  so  affectionately  allied, 
and  so  content  in  their  happy  relations,  that  they  fail  to  reach  out  as 
promptly  as  they  should  to  welcome  others  to  a  fellowship  as  complete. 
It  is  not  pride,  or  a  selfish  exclusiveness,  v/hich  detains  them  from  this, 
so  much  as  an  undefined  passiveness  of  temper,  which  has  found  its  own 
rest  in  pleasant  companionships,  and  which  now  expects  others,  without 
hindrance  or  help,  to  do  the  same.  It  is  by  no  means  a  beautiful  spirit, 
or  one  befitting  a  Christian  church ;  but  it  easily  grows  up,  without 
purpose  or  notice,  in  a  congregation  of  many  years  standing,  whose 
position  is  secure,  whose  means  are  equal  to  its  needs,  and  most  of 
whose  families  have  known  each  other  long.  After  an  interval  it  gives 
way  ;  but  in  that  interval  those  who  have  come  from  villages  or  cities 
where  their  social  relations  had  been  wide  and  delightful,  reaching  back 
very  likely' to  their  earliest  remembrance,  have  easily  felt  themselves 
sojourners  and  strangers,  parted  from  an  old  home,  with  no  new  one  to 
Street  them. 

But  if  they  have  continued  with  us,  and  not  holding  themselves 
shyly  aloof  have  sought  the  opportunities  for  acquaintanceship  and 
friendship  constantly  presented  in.our  religious  and  social  assemblies,  in 
the  Chapel-school,  the  Home-school,  the  Young  People’s  meetings,  or 
other  organizations  for  counsel  and  work,  I  hazard  nothing  in  saying 
that  they  have  found  themselves  embosomed  ere  long  in  a  welcoming 
regard  most  genial  and  sympathetic.  They  have  often,  I  know,  been 
themselves  surprised  at  the  readiness,  even  eagerness,  with  which  the 
congregation  has  expanded  its  fellowship  to  infold  them  as  closely  as  if 
they  had  been  of  it  from  the  beginning.  And  the  fellowship  has  not 
been  in  form  and  in  name,  but  the  outreach  of  glad  and  saluting  confi- 


28 


DISCO  UR8E. 


deuce.  I  know  of  no  congregation  where  the  spirit  has  prevailed  more 
consistently  than  here,  of  atfectionate  thoughtfulness  for  those  joined 
with  us  in  Avorship  and  Avork,  of  earnest  solicitude  Avlien  sickness  has 
threatened  any  of  our  families,  of  heartiest  sympathy  Avhen  grief  has 
come.  Your  consciousness,  I  am  sure,  Avill  in  this  respond  to  mine.  I 
have  oftentimes  been  freshly  and  delightfully  reminded  of  the  fact  when 
those  Avho  had  been  here  only  for  a  time,  and  then  had  left  for  residence 
elsewhere,  liave  spoken  to  me,  or  have  sent  me  word,  of  the  loAung 
remembrance  in  AA'hich  they  continued  to  hold  the  church,  for  the  happy 
felloAvships  AAdiich  in  it  they  had  found,  and  the  spiritual  help  which  those 
felloAvships  had  brought.  Yor  do  I  think  that  this  experience  has  been 
at  any  time  more  general  or  spontaneous  than  it  is  at  this  hour. 

I  have  s])oken  thus  far,  as  it  has  seemed  fit  that  I  should,  only  of 
the  inner  life  of  the  church,  as  that  has  appeared  to  those  immediately 
familiar  Avith  it.  The  Avork  attempted,  and  in  a  measure  accomplished 
by  it,  in  its  outward  activities,  Ave  may  also  properly  recall.  We  have 
not  lived  a  cloistered  life.  We  have  not  been  disproportionately 
absorbed  in  high  meditation,  or  in  devout  re  very.  The  pressure  of  the 
Gospel  has  been  ahvays  upon  us,  prompting  to  immediate  practical  use¬ 
fulness  ;  and  Avhile  we  have  done  nothing  the  remembrance  of  AvTich 
should  stimulate  pride,  we  may,  I  think,  Avith  manifold  reason,  ofifer 
praises  to  God  for  the  opportunities  opened  before  us,  and  for  the 
measure  of  poAver  and  consecration  Avith  Avhich  Ave  have  been  enabled 
to  use  them. 

A  church  composed  of  Christian  households,  neighboring  in  residence, 
and  touched  by  one  impulse  from  the  Master,  must  naturally  be  inter¬ 
ested,  actively  and  largely,  in  Avhat  concerns  the  prosperity  of  the  city 
in  the  midst  of  Avhich  its  life  goes  on ;  especially  in  what  tends  to  foster 
and  further  the  liberal,  humane,  and  religious  institutions  appearing  in 
the  city,  and  to  advance  its  generous  culture.  Such  an  interest  has  been 
shown  by  this  chui-ch  with  unabating  and  liberal  vigor,  since  my 
acquaintance  Avith  it  began.  It  has  not  been  in  preeminent  degree  a 
wealthy  church,  though  most  of  the  families  associated  in  it  have  been 
prosperous  in  affairs,  and  it  always  has  embraced  some  families  of 
wealth.  But  the  duty  of  usefulness  has  had  general  recognition,  and 
the  gifts  proceeding  from  the  congregation  for  the  promotion  of  public 
interests  have  been  constant  and  large.  In  its  singularly  rapid  and  wide 
expansion  the  city  has  needed,  more  than  most,  large  outlays  of  money, 
as  Avell  as  the  push  of  a  foreseeing  and  liberal  enterprise,  to  make  its 
institutions  keep  abreast  with  the  times.  It  is  pleasant  to  remember 
that  in  both  forms  of  aid,  financial  and  moral,  Avehave  done  our  full  part. 


DISCO  UnSE. 


29 


The  only  institutions  here,  of  a  literary  or  pliilanthropic  character, 
when  nij  acquaintance  with  Brooklyn  began,  were  the  small  and  recent 
Orphan  Asylum,  then  on  Cumberland  street,  the  City  Hospital,  which 
had  an  act  of  incorporation  but  nothing  besides,  the  Association  for 
improving  the  condition  of  the  Poor,  still  in  its  infancy,  the  Brooklyn 
Institute  on  Washington  street,  which  had  no  promising  pecuniary 
basis,  and  the  Female  Academy,  which  had  been  opened  a  few^  months 
before.  Only  a  small  nucleus  of  a  library,  for  the  use  of  subscribers, 
existed  in  the  city.  The  City  Bible  Society  had  scarcely  a  name  to 
live;  the  Sunday  School  Union,  which  now  includes  nearly  a  hundred 
and  hfty  schools  in  our  part  of  the  city,  with  more  than  sixty  thousand 
teachers  and  scholars,  was  apparently  not  strong  enough  then  to  preserve 
its  own  records ;  and  what  has  been  since  the  prosperous  and  efficient 
City  Mission  Society  was  a  changing  company  of  individual  Christians 
volunteering  year  by  year  to  distribute  tracts.  It  had  no  legal  organi¬ 
zation,  was  limited  in  effort,  faint  in  courage,  always  in  debt.  Its  entire 
revenue  for  the  year  preceding  the  beginning  of  this  pastorate  was  $113. 

The  changes  which  have  since  been  accomplished  you  have  seen  ; 
and  the  record  of  them  is  one  in  which  all  wdio  have  had  a  part  in 
securing  them  may  well  take  pleasure.  You  know  how  the  Orphan 
Asylum,  in  its  better  location,  has  been  splendidly  housed  in  its  new 
building — a  superb  Cathedral  of  charity — and  how  it  is  being  not  only 
sustained  in  its  continually  expanding  work,  but  is  being  slowdy  but 
surely  endowed ;  how  the  City  Hospital  has  unfolded  into  a  great  insti¬ 
tution,  wdth  ample  equipment  of  modern  appliances ;  how  the  Associa¬ 
tion  for  the  relief  of  the  Poor  has  secured  its  commodious  building, 
with  its  abundant  annual  revenue ;  and  how  the  burned  Female 
Academy  rose  from  its  ashes,  into  the  ampler  accommodation  and  the 
statelier  beauty  of  the  Packer  Institute,  known  and  honored  throughout 
the  land.  You  know,  too,  how  other  kindred  institutions  have  been 
added  to  these,  with  a  rapidity  constantly  surprising,  yet  in  a  strength 
which  justifies  glad  admiration  and  hope.  The  Long  Island  College 
Hospital,  the  Homeopathic  Hospital,  the  Eye  and  Ear  Hospital,  have 
been  among  these.  The  Methodist  Hospital,  to  which  a  public-spirited 
gentleman,  not  of  our  communion  though  then  worshipping  with  us, 
gave  four  hundred  thousand  dollars,  still  awaits  its  completion. 

Of  more  general  humane  institutions,  the  Old  Ladies’  Home,  the 
Home  for  Aged  Men,  the  Children’s  Aid  Society,  wdth  its  Newsboys’ 
Home,  the  Diet  Dispensary,  the  Industrial  School  Association,  the 
Home  for  the  Friendless,  the  Female  Employment  Society,  the  Home 
for  Working  Women,  the  Brooklyn  Nursery,  the  Faith  Home,  the  Union 


30 


DISCO  URSE. 


for  Christian  Work,  the  Home  for  Consumptives,  the  Bureau  of  Chari¬ 
ties,  the  Seaside  Home,  with  its  delightful  summer  arrangements  for 
mothers  and  children  among  the  poor,  the  Christian  Association,  with 
its  magnificent  building,  and  its  important  though  inadequate  fund  of 
$150,000 — all  these  have  been  established  within  this  term  of  forty 
years.  So  have  equally  the  literary  or  educational  institutions — the 
Polytechnic  Institute,  with  its  constantly  enriched  and  multiplied 
courses,  the  Adelphi  Academy,  the  Historical  Society,  the  Philharmonic 
Society,  the  Brooklyn  Library,  the  Art  Association,  the  Academy  of 
Music,  besides  flourishing  and  useful  private  institutions  for  culture  or 
for  literary  pleasure.  As  no  other  community  along  the  seaboard  has 
increased  like  this,  from  small  beginnings  to  an  aggregate  population  of 
nearly  or  quite  three  quarters  of  a  million,  in  these  forty  years,  so  in  no 
other  have  such  incessant  demands  been  made  on  those  liberally  disposed 
for  large  contributions  toward  the  equipment  which  a  great  city  needs. 
In  Boston,  in  Hew  York,  in  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  in  smaller  cities 
like  Hartford  or  Providence,  a  considerable  proportion  of  such  institu¬ 
tions  now  existing  have  been  inherited  from  the  past.  They  have 
needed  only  to  be  maintained,  or  perhaps  more  abundantly  furnished. 
Here  they  have  had  to  be  built  from  the  base  ;  and  the  burden  of  doing 
it  has  been  laid  upon  a  people  not  unusually  wealthy,  not  commonly 
native  to  the  soil,  and  hardly  capable,  by  its  recent  and  changeful  com¬ 
position,  of  being  pervaded  by  that  public  spirit  which  comes  as  a 
tradition  to  those  long  resident  in  a  town,  whose  parents  perhaps  were 
there  before  them. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  much  of  the  work  has  had  to  be  done  by 
comparatively  few.  It  has  had  to  be  done  almost  wholly  by  the  living, 
since  important  legacies  to  public  institutions  from  the  wealth  of  the 
dying  have  been  distressingly  few.  It  has  brought  its  privilege  to  those 
who  have  done  it,  but  it  also  has  laid  heavy  duties  upon  them.  On  no 
other  continent  could  an  equal  achievement  have  been  proposed — to 
supply  a  vast  city,  within  a  few  years,  by  voluntary  gifts,  with  the 
needful  institutions  for  training  its  intelligence,  moulding  its  character, 
organizing  its  charity,  ennobling  its  future.  The  work  is  by  no  means 
wholly  done  ;  but  so  far  as  it  has  proceeded  it  is  simply  due  to  the  truth 
to  say  that  those  united  in  this  congregation  have  taken  their  share  with 
liberal  energy,  have  been  prompt  to  lead  when  that  was  required,  as 
well  as  always  ready  to  follow.  The  exact  figui’es  of  the  gifts  made 
here  to  institutions  within  the  city,  I  cannot  command ;  but  except  in 
the  instance  of  the  Adelphi  Academy,  remote  from  us,  and  having  its 
numerous  and  wealthy  constituency  upon  its  own  ground,  I  think  that 


DISCOURSE. 


31 


no  one  of  those  which  I  have  named  has  failed  to  find  among  ns  effective 
assistance.  Several  of  them  liad  here  their  initiative.  All  of  them 
have  received  large  aids  in  money,  with  constant  and  vigorous  moral 
succor. 

Nor  can  it  be  said  that  the  sympathies  of  this  people  have  been 
limited  to  the  community  of  which  it  is  part.  The  first  large  contribu¬ 
tion  here  made,  in  the  second  or  third  year  of  my  ministry,  was  of  eight 
thousand  dollars  for  a  distant  college,  on  the  Western  Keserve.  Much 
larger  individual  contributions  have  since  been  made  to  colleges  at  the 
East.  To  many  churches,  near  or  remote,  gifts  have  been  forwarded, 
aggregating  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars,  for  the  erection  of  houses  of 
worship,  or  of  parson  age-homes  ;  while  our  regular  monthly  contribu¬ 
tions  have  not  been  interrupted,  to  the  Home  Missionary  work,  to  tlie 
cause  of  Foreign  Missions,  to  the  Seaman’s  Friend  Society,  to  the  Asso¬ 
ciation  which  specially  ministers  to  the  red  and  the  black  races  in  our 
land,  to  the  societies  which  plant  Sunday  Schools,  or  erect  and  furnish 
new  houses  of  prayer,  or  distribute  the  Bible,  to  the  cause  of  Christian 
education.  The  society  which  seeks  to  establish  Sunday  Schools  in 
foreign  countries  had  its  origin  here,  and  has  now  in  this  church  some 
principal  officers.  The  contributions  to  all  these  branches  of  Christian 
effort  have  been  sometimes  enlarged,  as  families  have  become  more 
interested  in  them,  or  again  have  been  reduced,  as  such  families  have 
removed,  to  be  replaced  by  others  less  conversant  with  the  work  or  less 
active  in  promoting  it.  But  the  general  level  has  been  fairly  main¬ 
tained  ;  and  from  what  I  know  of  individual  gifts,  passing  outside  the 
treasury  of  the  church,  and  not  unfrequently  through  my  own  hands, 
as  well  as  from  the  treasurer’s  collective  reports,  I  hazard  nothing  in 
saying  that  twenty  thousand  dollars  a  year,  for  the  forty  years,  would  be 
less  rather  than  more  than  the  amount  here  contributed  to  philanthropic 
and  Christian  institutions.  It  has  far  surpassed  what  has  been  used,  in 
the  same  term  of  years,  for  our  current  expenses.  The  sum  is  not 
extraordinary,  of  course,  as  compared  with  the  gifts  of  wealthier 
churches  ;  but  it  shows  a  spirit  of  steady  liberality,  for  which  we  may 
appropriately  give  thanks. 

It  has  been  a  special  aim  of  the  church,  from  an  early  period  in  its 
history,  to  make  the  Gospel  which  it  honors  and  loves  familiar  to  the 
poor,  and  to  carry  the  message  of  Divine  invitation  to  those  in  the  city 
to  whom  this  otherwise  might  not  go.  We  gladly  offer  free  seats  in  this 
house,  to  the  number  of  nearly  two  hundred,  to  those  who  wish  to  hear 
the  Gospel  but  who  can  make  no  pecuniary  return.  The  rental  of  our 
pews  is  carefully  adjusted,  so  that,  while  some  of  them  bear  an  annual 


32 


DISCO  URSE. 


cliai-ge  of  liuiidreds  of  dollars,  others  are  rated  at  hfty,  or  forty,  or 
twenty  dollars  a  year.  W e  have  gladly  aided  churches  in  parts  of  the 
town  which  at  tlie  time  were  less  attractive  than  this,  and  have  seen 
some  of  them  grow  into  splendid  strength  and  fame.  For  many  years 
we  contributed  annually  thousands  of  dollars  to  the  City  Mission  Society, 
besides  giving  important  assistance  in  practical  counsel  and  in  stimula¬ 
ting  purpose.  With  the  increase  in  the  number  of  churches  cooperating 
in  its  work,  with  the  augmented  demands  made  upon  us  by  our  particular 
Mission-held,  I  am  sorry  to  add,  with  the  passing  from  among  us  by 
removal  or  death  of  some  to  whom  the  Society  had  been  dear,  our  con¬ 
tributions  to  it  for  several  years  have  been  seriously  diminished.  It  will 
be  an  omen  of  good  to  the  church,  and  to  the  city,  when  they  rise  again, 
as  1  trust  they  soon  will,  to  the  highest  level  which  they  ever  have 
reached.  A  Mission-school  among  the  poor  was  opened  l)y  members  of 
this  congregation  nearly  forty  years  since,  while  such  schools  were  still 
infrequent.  Though  limited,  and  sometimes  seriously  threatened,  by 
changes  in  the  population  around  it,  this  was  not  suffered  to  languish  or 
decay ;  and  ten  years  since  the  church  erected,  and  amply  furnished,  a 
charming  Chapel,  at  a  cost  of  forty  thousand  dollars,  into  which  the 
school  was  then  transported.  At  an  annual  charge  of  some,  thousands 
of  dollars,  which  the  Society  gladly  meets,  a  vigorous  Sunday-school  is 
there  maintained,  of  eight  hundred  members,  with  Infant  classes,  Bible 
classes,  a  Sewing-school,  an  Industrial  Club,  and  a  free  Library  ;  a 
faithful  Minister  of  the  Grospel  conducts  morning  and  evening  services 
on  Sunday,  with  a  weekly  prayer-meeting,  and  does  a  large  wmrk  in 
pastoral  visitation  ;  a  second  meeting  for  conference  and  prayer  is  carried 
on  by  the  young  people  of  the  church  ;  while  from  eighty  to  a  hundred 
of  our  members  and  officers  take  active  and  effective  part  in  the  Sunday 
instruction. 

I  do  not  affirm  that  all  which  has  thus  been  done  by  the  church  for 
the  ministry  of  the  Gospel  to  those  not  possessed  of  worldly  goods 
ought  to  content  us.  The  plan  may  not  be  ideally  complete.  But  it 
certainly  shows  that  the  Christian  households  here  associated,  while 
happy  in  their  own  fellowships  and  services,  have  not  been  unmindful 
of  the  duty  and  the  privilege  of  ministering  to  others,  hlor  do  I  yet 
see  another  plan,  for  similar  endeavors,  better  conceived  or  more  com¬ 
prehensive.  The  location  of  the  church  is  in  a  part  of  the  city  remote 
from  the  poor.  Though  our  free  seats  are  largely  occupied,  there  are 
many  who  will  not  take  the  time,  or  make  the  journey,  needed  to  reach 
them.  There  is  with  some  an  unnecessary  shyness,  nowise  dishonorable 
though  wholly  superfluous,  about  entering  with  confidence  and  regular 


DISCO  URSE. 


33 


frequency  into  a  building  belonging  to  others,  to  the  maintenance  of 
whose  services  they  do  not  contribute.  Under  these  conditions,  it  seems 
necessary  to  try  to  make  the  Gospel  familiarly  at  home  upon  their  own 
ground.  A  church  must  of  course  have  a  certain  revenue,  as  truly  as 
a  college  or  an  asylum,  a  family,  or  a  city.  If  not  derived  from  perma¬ 
nent  endowments,  which  are  rarely  beneticial,  or  painfully  wrung  from 
scanty  purses  under  the  threat  of  future  terrors,  or  secured  in  some  indi¬ 
rect  criss-cross  fashion,  on  what  is  known  as  the  Free-church  arraime- 
ment,  this  must  be  derived  from  a  fair  and  detinite  annual  tax  settled 
upon  the  pews.  If  then  extravagant  salaries  are  not  paid,  and  if  in 
addition  to  manv  free  seats  within  its  ov/n  walls,  and  universally  free 
seats  in  its  beautiful  Chapel,  a  church  supports  constantly  from  two  to 
four  missionary  teachers,  with  a  cultivated  lady-reader  of  the  Bible  to 
visit  scattered  families  at  their  homes,  and  if  scores  of  its  members  take 
active  and  earnest  personal  part  in  its  Mission-work,  I  see  not  that  it  is 
properly  liable  to  any  sharp  criticism  for  alleged  neglect  or  disdain  of 
the  poor.  Certainly  such  criticism  comes  with  ill  grace  from  those  who 
know  not  in  themselves,  and  cannot  carry  to  others,  Christ’s  gracious 
message  of  power  and  promise ;  who  have  nothing  whatever  to  offer  to  the 
poor  but  rum  and  blasphemy,  for  both  of  which  they  expect  to  be  paid. 

Upon  its  own  edihce  the  congregation  here  worshipping  has  naturally 
made  liberal  expenditures,  but  it  has  needed  what  it  has  paid  for,  and 
the  outlay  has  been  nowise  extravagant,  as  compared  with  that  simul¬ 
taneously  made  upon  neighboring  private  houses,  or  wdth  the  aggregate 
wealth  of  the  Society.  Having  cost  originally  sixty-hvx  tliousand  dol¬ 
lars,  or  more  than  twice  the  primary  estimate,  a  debt  was  left  upon  the 
church-building  which  was  fully  paid  a  year  or  two  after  the  Pastor 
came.  Several  years  later  it  became  necessary  to  substantially  recon¬ 
struct  the  interior,  giving  additional  security  to  the  roof.  Another 
expenditure,  of  nearly  twenty  thousand  dollars,  was  thus  incurred,  and 
was  speedily  met.  After  fifteen  years  more  it  appeared  needful  to  pur¬ 
chase  additional  adjoining  lots,  and  to  extend  the  entire  structure,  gain¬ 
ing  larger  space  for  the  Sunday -assemblies,  while  adding  new  lecture 
and  conference  rooms,  a  new  Sunday-school  chapel,  more  modern 
pews,  a  richer  organ,  with  an  ampler  and  pleasanter  Pastor’s  Study. 
The  work  was  undertaken  with  intelligent  courage ;  but  again  the 
expenditure  far  exceeded  the  careful  estimates,  surpassing,  indeed,  tlie 
entire  preceding  cost  of  the  building.  A  large  indebtedness  was  thus 
incurred,  which  the  congregation  with  vigorous  will  faced  and  paid 
while  the  Pastor  was  absent  in  Europe,  and  when  it  seemed  by  no 
means  certain  that  he  could  ever  resume  his  work.  Fie  has  not  yet  for- 


34 


DISCO  URSE. 


gotten  the  thrill  which  shot  a  sudden  wave  of  gladness  through  heart 
and  brain  on  a  May-day  in  Rome,  when  a  telegram  announced  the 
result;  nor  has  he  ever  ceased  to  rejoice  in  the  illnstration,  so  splendidly 
given,  of  the  unyielding  and  generous  strength  of  this  beloved  Society. 
A  hotel-parlor,  looking  out  npon  the  Piazza  di  Spagna,  will  have  for 
him  always  this  signal  association. 

As  the  result  of  such  pecuniary  outlays,  we  have  a  church-edihce, 
not  as  vast  as  some,  but  stately  and  attractive,  and  as  complete  in  its 
permanent  appointments  as  can  easily  be  found  ;  with  seats  for  fourteen 
hundred  in  its  pews,  with  sufficient  and  inviting  auxiliary  rooms,  with 
its  whole  purpose  expressed  in  its  structure,  and  wdth  no  burden  of 
indebtedness  upon  it.  It  corresponds  closely  with  the  character  and 
aims  of  the  spiritual  body  worshipping  in  it.  It  is  puritanic,  in  its  solid 
strength  of  foundations  and  walls,  and  in  the  interior  constructions  of 
oak ;  but  it  delightfully  adds  grace  to  strength,  elegance  of  line,  and  an 
unobtrusive  charm  of  color,  to  the  massive  solidity.  A  piece  of  Plymouth 
Rock  has  been  from  the  first  imbedded  in  its  tower;  but  its  basal  stones 
lie  deeper  than  that,  even  as  of  the  spiritual  house  which  it  shelters 
and  represents  the  corner-stone  is  neither  the  theology  nor  the  order  of 
the  Pilgrims,  but  the  Person  and  Work  of  Christ.  Tlie  story  of  its 
growth,  answering  to  the  steady  growdh  of  its  congregation,  is  recorded 
in  its  extending  walls,  and  gives  them  already  a  historical  interest.  The 
rhythmic  lines  of  its  interior,  with  the  rich  and  delicate  harmonies  of 
its  tints,  invest  it  with  beauty  and  dignity  to  our  eyes ;  while  the  sweet 
majesty  of  tlie  tones  of  its  bell  supplies  an  almost  articulate  voice  to 
the  feeling  of  Christian  adoration  which  pervades  it.  As  we  regard  it, 
the  whole  building  delightfully  corresponds  with  the  sentiment  and 
purpose,  the  lofty  thought,  the  spiritual  culture,  the  devout  aspiration, 
which  are  sought  to  be  expressed  and  nourished  within  it.  We  trust 
that  it  will  stand  for  many  generations,  to  represent  the  truth  wdiich 
here  has  been  preached,  with  the  hope  which  by  that  truth  has  been 
cherished,  and  to  testify  to  those  wlio  daily  pass  it  of  the  spheres  on 
high  toward  which  its  spire  significantly  points,  and  of  the  Master  wdio 
within  it  is  praised  and  adored. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  church  in  its  constitution,  its  spirit,  and  its 
work,  as  I  have  seen  them  for  forty  years ;  but  the  picture  would  remain 
incomplete  unless  enclosed,  as  in  an  exterior  marginal  rim,  by  some 
brief  mention  of  the  encompassing  changes,  social  and  civic  as  well  as 
religious,  amid  which  this  life  has  been  proceeding.  Set  in  the  frame 
of  such  an  outline  of  outlying  change,  the  essential  consistency  and  con¬ 
tinuity  of  that  life  may  become  to  us  still  more  distinct. 


DISCO  URSE. 


35 


The  changes  in  its  own  membership  have  been  many.  There  have 

been  received  into  it,  from  the  beginning,  2,144  members,  1,239  npon 

letters  from  other  churches,  905  on  confession  of  tlieir  faith — all  the 

latter,  with  one  exception,  since  this  pastorate  began.  More  than  three 

hundred  have  died  while  connected  with  the  church.  29Y  as  noted  on 

/ 

our  records ;  and  849  have  been  dismissed  with  commendatory  letters, 
or  have  been  otherwise  separated  from  the  church.  The  names  of  998 
members  are  now  upon  our  roll,  though  more  than  a  hundred  of  them 
are  marked  as  absentees,  some  of  whom  no  doubt  have  died  in  their 
absence.  Ten  of  those  here  taught  in  religion  have  entered  the  ministry 
of  the  Gospel ;  and  several  of  them  are  now  rendering  faithful  service, 
at  the  East  or  the  West. 

These  numbers  of  course  are  nowise  large  as  compared  with  those 
on  the  records  of  churches  which  number  their  communicants  by 
thousands,  their  annual  accessions  not  unfrequently  by  hundreds.  But 
remembering  how  retired  and  comparatively  permanent  this  congrega¬ 
tion  has  been,  and  that  from  an  early  period  in  its  history  at  least 
one  half  of  tliose  worshipping  in  it  had  been  already  enrolled  as  com¬ 
municants,  we  may  reasonably  feel  that  God  has  accepted  and  blessed 
our  work,  causing  the  church,  under  the  dew  of  His  grace,  to  grow  as 
the  lily,  and  giving  to  it  a  beauty  as  of  the  olive-tree,  if  He  has  not 
enabled  it  to  spread  widely  its  branches,  and  to  cast  forth  its  roots  as 
Lebanon.  It  is  also  to  be  remembered  that  the  instances  have  been 
many  in  which  those  from  abroad  attending  school  in  the  city,  and  for 
the  time  worshipping  wdth  ns,  have  here  been  led  to  a  love  for  the  Lord 
the  public  confession  of  which  they  have  afterward  made,  as  was  meet 
and  right,  in  the  home-congregations  to  which  they  returned. 

The  changes  in  Christian  circles  around  us  have  been  rapid,  and  in  the 
aggregate  sadly  impressive.  I  think  that  every  member  of  the  Council 
by  which  I  was  installed,  lay  or  clerical,  has  since  passed  from  life  on 
earth.  Certainly  of  the  chief  clerical  members — Drs.  Bacon,  Blagden, 
Spencer,  Badger,  Dr.  Thompson,  Dr.  Dwight,  Dr.  Lansing,  Dr.  Adams, 
my  father,  and  others — not  one  remains  to  be  to-day  greeted  by  us. 
Many  other  clergymen  then  or  since  eminent  in  the  city  have  also 
entered  within  the  gates: — Drs.  Cox,  Lewis,  Jacobus,  McLane,  Green- 
leaf;  Drs.  Stone,  Yinton,  Cutler,  Diller,  W.  H.  Lewis;  Dr.  Taylor,  Dr. 
Brodhead,  Dr.  Hathan  Bangs,  Bev.  Bobert  Seney,  all  of  whom  w^ere 
then  here,  with  Dominie  Johnson,  highest  of  Anglicans,  and  most  lov¬ 
able  of  men ;  Drs.  Bethune,  Budington,  Kennedy,  Bockwell,  Bufus 
Clark,  Dr.  Inglis,  Dr.  Schenck,  Dr.  Guion,  Drs.  Elmendorf,  Eells, 
Kimball,  Perry,  Dixon,  with  many  others,  who  came  later.  I  am,  I 


36 


DISCO  UESE. 


believe,  with  one  honored  exception,  the  oldest  Pastor,  in  the  order  of 
settlement,  in  active  service  in  the  same  parish,  in  any  Protestant  com- 
ninnion  in  Xew  York  or  Brooklyn.  Many  of  the  churches  immediately 
around  us  have  been  served,  as  you  know,  by  several  Pastors,  in  the 
period  reviewed: — the  First  Presbyterian  Church  by  five,  the  Baptist 
Church  on  Pierrepont  street  by  six,  the  First  Dutch  Church  by  six,  the 
Church  on  the  Fteights  by  seven,  Grace  Church  by  five,  St.  Ann’s 
Church  by  four.  Trinity  Church  by  only  three.  It  may  not  have  implied 
special  wisdom  on  your  part  to  be  content  with  one  ministry  so  long  ; 
but  it  shows  how  kindly  God  has  dealt  with  us,  and  how  genially  con¬ 
servative  this  Society  has  been. 

The  changes  in  the  outward  condition  of  the  cities,  now  knit  by  the 
Bridge  into  practical  oneness,  have  been  so  many  and  so  surprising  that 
it  seems  impossible  that  others  of  like  novelty  and  importance  should 
occur  in  another  such  term  of  years.  At  the  time  of  my  installation,  as 
some  of  you  remember,  we  had  no  water  in  this  city,  save  that  which 
came  through  the  frequent  street-pumps,  or  was  gathered  in  cisterns 
from  the  roofs.  Aew  York  had  received  it  only  four  years  before, 
thi’ough  the  then  unfinished  Croton  Aqueduct.  We  had,  on  this  side 
of  the  river,  no  gas  in  our  houses,  or  along  our  streets;  no  City  Hall,  or 
municipal  buildings ;  of  course  no  street-railways,  and  no  telegraph  con¬ 
nections.  One  struck  the  country-road,  winding  between  farms,  a  little 
beyond  the  present  City-Hall  square.  The  city  had  no  uniformed  police. 
The  protection  of  it,  so  far  as  there  was  any,  was  in  the  hands  of  the  City 
Watcli,  with  two  captains,  two  assistants,  two  watch-houses,  and  sixty 
watchmen,  divided  into  squads  of  fifteen  each,  to  keep  guard  by  turns 
during  day  and  night.  The  pay  of  the  watchmen  was  fifty  cents  a  day. 
There  were  said  to  be  also  nine  invisible  constables,  or  one  for  each 
ward.  The  assessed  value  of  real  and  personal  property  in  the  city  was 
less  than  twenty-seven  millions  of  dollars  ($26,933,616),  or  considerably 
less  than  that  of  the  real  estate  alone  in  the  first  ward  to-day.  There 
were  twelve  public  schools,  with  less  than  twenty-six  hundred  pupils, 
maintained  at  a  cost  of  $23,236,  in  place  of  the  sixty-nine  schools  of 
to-day,  with  sixty-eight  thousand  pupils,  and  an  expenditure  of 
$1,600,000.  Holy  Trinity  Church  had  not  been  opened.  The  build¬ 
ing  of  Grace  Church  had  not  been  begun.  The  Church  on  the  Heights 
was  not  commenced  till  four  years  later.  The  square  on  which  this 
church  was  erected  was  occupied,  for  the  larger  part,  as  a  pasture  for 
cows.  On  the  south  side  of  Remsen  street,  from  Henry  to  Court 
streets,  there  was  not  a  house  ;  on  the  north  side  were  but  two.  Mon¬ 
tague  street  was  as  nearly  without  houses,  and  was  not  opened  to  the 


DISCO  URSE. 


37 


river,  where  the  Wall-street  ferry  liad  not  been  started.  What  is  now 
Prospect  Park  was  a  rough,  dreary,  malarious  waste,  with  a  few  shanties 
for  colored  people  scattered  among  its  intricate  thickets.  The  hills  on  this 
side  of  it,  now  rapidly  being  covered  with  costly  and  attractive  houses, 
were  vacant  uplands.  Dr.  Cox  called  his  house,  at  the  point  where 
Oxford  street  crosses  Fulton,  “Pusurban,”  as  being  in  the  country, 
while  connected  with  the  town.  His  hold  upon  his  people  was  thought 
by  some  to  have  been  weakened,  by  the  fact  that  he  had  migrated  so 
far  into  the  Island.  The  Bridge  which  connects  us  with  Manhattan 
Island,  with  its  nightly  crown  of  electric  lights,  would  have  seemed 
more  incredible,  if  any  one  had  dreamed  of  it,  than  a  vision  of  angels 
flaming  forth  upon  the  sky ;  while  a  railroad  in  the  air  would  have  bewil¬ 
dered  the  imagination,  like  a  romancer’s  fancy  of  a  flying  stone  sphinx. 
Brooklyn  was  only  known  to  the  country,  and  was  principally  known 
within  itself,  as  offering  a  dormitory  to  the  people  of  Hew  York,  and  as 
the  last  considerable  place  on  the  way  to  Greenwood. 

Across  the  river  the  changes  have  been  yet  more  conspicuous. 
Castle  Garden  was  then  a  place  for  great  musical  performances.  Stately 
residences  stood  around  the  Battery,  or  overlooked  the  Bowling  Green. 
Columbia  College  was  on  the  old  site,  between  Barclay  and  Murray 
streets,  and  its  ancient  sycamores  had  not  disappeared.  Trinity  Church 
had  been  recently  erected.  The  Brick  Church  stood  on  what  is  now 
known  as  Printing  House  Square.  St.  George’s  w^as  on  Beekman 
street,  at  the  corner  of  Clilf,  and  had  attached  parishioners  in  Brooklyn. 
The  Tabernacle  Church  was  on  Broadway,  between  Anthony,  now 
known  as  Worth  street,  and  Leonard.  The  Hew^  York  Hospital  w^as  a 
little  below  it,  on  the  corner  of  Duane  street.  Dr.  Macaulay  was 
preaching  in  Murray  street,  Dr.  James  Alexander  in  Duane  street.  Dr. 
Adams  in  Broome  street.  Dr.  Patton  in  Spring  street.  The  whirl  of  the 
city,  as  on  an  axis,  had  hardly  begun  to  carry  churches  northward,  in 
that  continually  unsatisfied  search  for  permanent  locations  which  seems 
destined  never  to  cease.  On  the  east  of  the  Bow^ery  were  fashionable 
neighborhoods.  Toward  the  west,  St.  John’s  Square,  Yarick  street. 
Beach  street,  Laight  street,  were  aristocratic.  So,  in  their  measure,  were 
Murray  and  Warren  streets.  Children  played,  and  gardens  blossomed, 
where  engines  now  throb,  and  warehouse-walls  shut  out  the  sky.  Great 
dry-goods’  houses  were  in  Pearl  street.  Pine  street,  sometimes  in  Wall 
street.  Broadway  was  a  street  for  retail  traiflc,  with  boarding-houses,  and 
many  hotels ;  but  above  Grand  street  it  had  houses  for  the  wealthy. 
St.  Thomas’  Church  was  on  the  corner  of  Houston  street.  Bond  street 
was  full  of  dignity  and  riches.  Washington  Square  was  a  recent  centre 


38 


DISCO  URSE. 


of  opulent  mansions.  Union  Square  seemed  the  limit  of  the  town  ;  and 
the  costly  stone  church  wdiich  preceded  there  the  Tiffany  warehouse  was 
not  finished.  The  Astor  Library  was  not  founded.  The  Cooper  Insti¬ 
tute,  and  the  Bible  House,  were  not  erected.  The  Hew  York  Historical 
Society  had  no  building  of  its  own,  but  held  its  meetings  in  a  room  of 
the  University,  and  kept  them  alive  by  adding  oysters  and  coffee  to  the 
graceful  or  learned  literary  papers.  Fifth  Avenue,  above  the  open 
fields  of  wdiat  is  now  Madison  S(|uare,  was  a  common  road,  enclosed  by 
fences.  The  Central  Park  lands  were  an  unoccupied  wild,  of  marsh 
and  rock,  not  purchased  by  the  city  till  ten  years  later. 

To  those  who  remember  Hew  York  and  Brooklyn  as  they  then  were, 
the  succeeding  changes  bewilder  thought,  almost  baffle  belief.  The  in¬ 
cessant  inrush  of  impetuous  populations  has  swept  the  ancient  landmarks 
before  it  as  spring  freshets  sweep  before  them  the  tiny  dams  which 
children  build.  The  compact,  sociable,  and  hospitable  towns  of  forty 
years  since  have  disappeared  amid  sudden  floods.  The  boundary  lines 
of  either  city  have  been  flung  widely  out,  to  make  room  for  the  surging 
immigration.  This  has  multiplied  already  our  local  population  nearly 
or  quite  twelve-fold,  and  is  pushing  on  to  muster  here  soon  a  million 
inhabitants. 

The  changes  occurring  in  the  country  at  large,  in  the  same  term  of 
years,  have  been  proportionately  vast,  and  some  of  them  of  a  deeper 
moral  significance.  When  I  stood  in  this  pulpit  on  the  stormy  evening 
of  Hovember  19th,  1846,  Mr.  James  K.  Polk  was  in  the  second  year  of 
his  Presidency,  against  whom,  two  years  earlier,  I  had  cast  my  first 
national  vote  with  the  heartiest  zeal.  The  war  with  Mexico  had  com¬ 
menced,  but  the  battles  of  Buena  Yista  and  Cerro  (iordo  had  not  been 
fought,  nor  Yera  Cruz  surrendered  to  our  arms.  It  was  still  ten  months 
before  our  troops  entered  the  capital.  The  Oregon  Treaty  wdth  Great 
Britain  had  been  lately  negotiated,  but  gold  had  not  been  found  in 
California,  nor  w^as  there  any  hint  in  the  air  of  the  vast  imiiiigration 
wdiich  was  soon  to  draw  an  adventurous  nation  over  the  continent,  and 
to  build  a  new  empire  along  the  Pacific.  The  first  line  of  telegraph, 
between  Washington  and  Baltimore,  had  been  in  operation  for  two 
years,  and  that  between  Hew  York  and  Philadelphia  for  one  year;  but 
the  novel  invention  was  rather  the  wonder  and  the  luxury  of  the  few 
than  the  instrument  of  the  many,  and  hardly  the  faintest  prophecy  had 
been  given  of  the  half-million  miles  of  wire  along  which  the  messages  of 
eager  millions  now  incessantly  pass.  The  Oceanic  Telegraph  was  no  more 
imagined  than  would  have  been  an  instrument  for  conversing  with  the 
stars.  The  Erie  Bailroad  was  not  opened  ;  nor  that  on  the  banks  of  the 


DISCO  URSE. 


39 


Hudson  River ;  nor  that  between  ISew  Haven  and  New  York.  Less 
than  five  thousand  miles  of  railway-track  had  been  laid  in  the  country 
(d,930),  as  against  the  more  than  a  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  miles 
now  built  and  operated.  An  honored  Congregational  minister  going  to 
Oregon  the  year  after  I  came  here,  had  to  take  eight  months  for  the 
journey.  He  returned,  some  years  since,  in  less  than  a  week ;  and  now 
he  can  speak  from  the  same  point  to  friends  in  this  city,  over  the  tele¬ 
graph,  more  quickly  than  we  can  send  a  messenger  to  upper  New  York. 
The  National  Union  included  twenty-nine  States,  instead  of  the  thirty- 
eight  of  to-day.  It  was  years,  of  course,  before  Slavery  and  Freedom 
met  in  their  fierce  grapple  in  Kansas  ;  fourteen  years  before  the  election 
of  Lincoln  ;  more  than  eighteen  before  the  close  of  the  Rebellion,  with 
the  resulting  destruction  of  Slavery.  The  Nation  has  been  essentially 
re-made,  since  this  pastorate  began,  in  larger  proportions,  on  a  nobler 
and  securer  plan  ;  the  empty  spaces  of  its  immense  territories  have  been 
largely  occupied  with  villages  and  cities  ;  its  population  has  been  multi¬ 
plied  from  twenty  to  more  than  sixty  millions  ;  the  moral  and  political 
life  which  pervades  it  has  been  vastly  enriched  in  power  and  promise  ; 
its  place  in  the  world,  with  its  infiuence  over  the  peoples  of  mankind, 
has  been  signally  exalted.  Others,  coming  after  us,  will  no  doubt  see 
changes  following  these,  of  constant  importance,  and  of  secular  interest. 
It  seems  impossible  that  they  should  see  changes  more  radical  or  more 
rapid  than  we  have  witnessed,  or  more  thoroughly  alive  with  prophetic 
indications. 

Yet  the  simultaneous  changes  in  Europe  have  been  scarcely  less  swift 
or  suiq^rising.  Louis  Philippe  seemed  then  established  for  life  on  the 
throne  of  France,  with  the  prospect  of  secure  succession  to  his  sons. 
Louis  Napoleon,  recently  escaped  from  the  Castle  of  Ham,  was  brooding 
in  London,  an  impoverished  exile.  The  long  pontificate  of  Pius  Ninth 
had  just  opened,  on  a  liberal  basis.  The  Northern  Italian  provinces, 
famous  and  lovely,  were  under  Austrian  military  government.  The  two 
Sicilies  moaned,  without  hope,  beneath  Bourbon  oppression.  What 
whirls  of  revolution  soon  followed,  you  remember  : — the  expulsion  of 
Louis  Philippe  from  France ;  the  Hungarian  rebellion,  bloodily  sup¬ 
pressed,  only  to  become  politically  successful  a  few  years  later ;  the 
Battle-summer  of  1848,  the  first  Presidency  of  Louis  Napoleon,  the 
founding  of  the  second  Empire  by  the  bloody  surprise  of  the  coup  dkat. 
To  the  children  of  to-day  these  seem  a  part  of  ancient  history.  So  does 
the  Crimean  War,  or  the  sudden  unification  of  Italy,  with  the  ending  of 
the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope.  Even  the  expulsion  of  Austria  from 
the  German  Bund,  with  the  simultaneous  elevation  of  Prussia  to  political 


40 


DISCO  URSE. 


and  military  leadersliip — even  the  crash  of  the  Empire  in  France,  after 
twenty  years  of  real  iinsoundness  though  of  delusive  and  dangerous 
glitter — begin  to  seem  distant  in  time ;  while  the  changes  in  England, 
and  in  the  relation  of  England  to  Ireland,  though  silently  proceeding^ 
have  been  constant  and  vast,  since  the  year  in  which  the  Corn  Laws 
were  abolished,  and  the  party  of  Young  Ireland  seceded  from  O’Connell. 

With  what  rapidity  the  world  beyond  Christendom  has  been  rushing 
along  the  grooves  of  change,  we  also  know.  Japan  remained,  forty 
years  since,  hermetically  sealed  against  the  commerce  and  the  Chris¬ 
tianity  which  now  it  seeks,  in  eager  rebound  from  the  long  isolation. 
China  was  inaccessible  to  missionary  effort,  except  at  a  few  specilied 
ports,  and  Chinamen  on  the  streets  of  American  cities,  from  which  an 
ignorant  jealousy  now^  would  expel  them,  were  almost  as  rare  as  Buddhist 
temples.  Eleven  years  after  this  pastorate  began  broke  forth  into  fires 
of  passionate  battle  that  Sepoy  Bebellion,  the  consequences  of  the  sup¬ 
pression  of  which  have  been  so  important  in  the  religious  and  political 
conditions  obtaining  in  India.  The  metallic  wealth  of  Australia  had 
not  been  discovered  when  we  met  here,  the  province  of  Yictoria  had 
not  been  constituted,  and  the  insular  continent  was  chiefly  known  to  the 
civilized  world  as  the  home  of  lowest  barbarian  tribes,  who  were  grad¬ 
ually  being  crowded  from  the  coast  by  the  multiplication  of  vast  sheep- 
farms.  Africa,  which  now  has  been  pierced  and  crossed  on  many  lines 
of  exploration,  and  into  which  the  expectant  enterprise  of  commerce 
and  of  missions  is  eagerly  pressing,  was  almost  as  unknown,  except 
along  narrow  pestilential  sea-edges,  as  is  the  geography  of  Jupiter  or  of 
Hep  tune. 

It  is  hard  to  realize  through  what  scenes  and  cycles  of  transfor¬ 
mation  the  world  has  moved.  We  are  measurably  insensitive  to  the  rapid 
revolutions  in  the  relations  of  countries  and  continents,  and  in  the 
internal  developments  of  each,  because  we  are  familiar  with  them  ;  as 
men  fail  to  notice  the  clang  of  machinery  when  they  live  in  the  midst 
of  it,  or  become  almost  careless  of  earthquake  trembles  when  these  often 
recur.  Ho  events  now  seem  to  us  amazing,  because  we  have  seen  such 
collisions  and  catastrophes,  with  such  unexampled  re- fashioning  of  states. 
But  any  one  who  has  looked  from  a  high  and  quiet  point  of  vantage  on 
the  history  of  the  latter  part  of  the  century,  has  had  before  him  a 
panorama  unequalled,  in  rapidity  of  movement,  in  the  tragic  splendor 
of  acliievement  and  overthrow,  in  events  suggestive  of  immeasurable 
future  cosmical  change. 

It  is  perhaps  yet  more  appropriate,  on  an  occasion  like  this,  to  notice 
the  swift  currents  and  swirls  of  religious  thought,  in  Christian  lands,  in 


DISCO  URSE. 


41 


tlie  midst  of  whose  vehement  iiro:encies  we  have  stood,  and  bv  which 
tlie  spiritual  history  of  the  time  has  been  stiri’ed  and  tossed  like  the 
vexed  surface  of  agitated  seas.  We  have  seen  on  the  one  hand  the  old 
scepticism,  which  never  dies,  on  the  other  hand  a  renascent  ritualism — 
exacting  and  haughty  in  its  Roman  exhibition,  clamorous  and  conceited 
in  the  Protestant  imitation — tacing  and  alternately  exciting  each  other, 
each  arrogant,  each  ambitious,  and  neither  perhaps  surpassing  the  other 
in  dislike  to  the  truth  as  we  have  held  it.  In  Protestant  communities 
have  been  manifold  influences  tending  to  a  wide  unsettling  of  belief. 
In  the  Papal  communion  tendencies  working  toward  stricter  definition 
and  completer  development  have  issued  in  the  action  of  the  Vatican 
Council,  ascribing  infallible  authority  to  the  Pontiff.  'No  intelligent 
community  can  have  remained  unaffected  by  the  alternating  swing  of 
such  persistent  and  imperious  movements. 

The  Grerman  thought,  often  aggressively  rationalistic,  whose  influence 
was  comparatively  limited  in  this  country  forty  years  since,  has  made  a 
constantly  wider  appeal  to  the  American  mind,  and  is  perhaps  as  active 
as  ever,  and  as  effective,  in  the  intluence  which  it  exerts  to-day.  The 
Life  of  Jesus,  by  Dr.  Strauss,  representing  the  mythical  theory  of  the 
Gospels,  was  first  presented  to  English  readers  through  a  translation  in 
A.  L).  1846.  With  the  kindred  Life  of  Jesus,  by  the  French  Renan,  trans¬ 
lated  and  circulated  twenty  years  later,  this  book  of  Dr.  Strauss  stands, 
in  some  important  respects,  in  singular  contrast ;  but  equally  with  that 
it  sought  to  resolve  the  whole  transcendent  story  of  the  Lord  into  a 
fabric  of  the  fancy,  aerial,  and  rose-tinted  ;  and  the  influence  of  both 
was  for  the  time  like  that  of  subtle  perfumed  poisons,  offered  in  dainty 
and  shining  goblets,  or  hidden  in  garlands.  It  was  fondly  thought  by 
some  sceptical  people  that  Dr.  Strauss,  especially,  had  delivered  the 
New  Testament  to  death  and  dust,  with  the  religion  which  it  contains. 
But  somehow  the  New  Testament  was  the  book  which  survived,  while 
to  think  of  his  now  is  like  remembering  a  ghost.  Many  other  volumes 
in  the  same  line  of  thought  have  followed  his,  from  German,  Dutch, 
and  English  writers,'  but  none  I  think  more  elaborate,  perhaps  none 
for  the  time  more  effective,  than  that  which  gave  him  his  rather  brief 
and  dreary  fame. 

Meantime,  of  course,  philosophy,  archfcology,  natural  science,  have 
pursued  their  own  paths,  in  indifference  to  Christianity,  and  though 
wdthout  purposed  hostility  to  it  have  not  unfrequently  propounded 
theories  essentially  destructive  of  what  in  it  is  radical  and  vital.  The 
Positive  Philosophy  of  Comte,  as  represented  to  English  readers  by 
Mi  ss  Martineau’s  version  in  a.  d.  1853,  and  by  eloquent  subsequent 


42 


DISCO  URSE. 


essays  of  others,  has  wrought  iu  a  distinctly  atheistic  direction.  Philo¬ 
sophical  or  poetic  discussions  of  the  ethnic  religions,  especially  of  the 
two  or  three  greatest  among  tliein,  havx  left  an  impression  on  many 
minds  that  Christianity  is  only  the  best  of  a  group,  if  indeed  it  be  alto¬ 
gether  that ;  that  all  have  sprung  out  of  the  intellectual  nature  of  man, 
and  tliat  each  has  its  own  advantages  and  defects ;  while  the  theory  of 
impersonal  evolution  in  nature — that  the  universe  is  a  development  of 
original  mechanical  force,  without  directing  intelligence,  and  without 
foreseen  ends — this,  as  presented  learnedly,  largely,  often  with  singular 
literary  skill,  by  German  or  English  enthusiasts  for  it,  has  assailed  the 
foundation  of  all  religions,  even  of  the  moral  nature  in  man.  Yet  in 
journals,  on  platforms,  sometimes  in  ambitious  harangues  from  the  pul¬ 
pit,  the  echo  of  such  adventurous  speculations  has  made  itself  heard ; 
and  those  not  familiar  with  the  argument  at  first  hand,  perhaps  not 
capable  of  following  its  steps,  have  often  been  glad  to  accept  a  conclu¬ 
sion  which  seemed  to  leave  the  universe  headless,  and  every  man  free  to 
do  as  he  lists. 

At  the  same  time,  however,  it  is  to  be  said  that  the  simultaneous 
defences  of  Christianity  have  not  been  inferior,  in  number  or  weight,  to 
the  attacks  thus  made  upon  it ;  that  earnest  and  searching  evangelical 
thought  has  been  immensely  indebted  to  the  diligent  labor  of  German 
scholars,  and  also  of  French,  represented  in  histories,  commentaries, 
profound  philosophical,  philological,  and  archaeological  investigations ; 
and  that  more  has  been  written,  ably,  learnedly,  wfith  the  eloquence  of 
adoring  affection,  setting  forth  the  Divine  Person  and  Life  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  in  these  forty  years,  than  in  any  or  all  preceding  periods. 
On  the  whole,  one  may  with  confidence  affirm  that  the  foreign  element, 
as  now  domesticated  in  our  literature,  has  been  helpful  rather  than 
hostile  to  the  Gospel ;  while  many  things  indicate  that  more  and  more 
it  is  to  bring  to  the  Master  of  Christendom  spices  and  riches,  of  myrrh 
and  gold. 

AVe  are  more  intimately  connected  in  this  country  with  the  English 
than  with  either  the  French  or  the  German  thought ;  and  the  frequent 
reactions  and  sharp  collisions  there  appearing  have  probably  had  more 
general  reflection  on  this  side  of  the  ocean  than  anywhere  else  outside 
of  England.  AVhen  this  church  was  organized,  the  wdde  and  energetic 
movement  toward  Romanism,  among  those  whofiiad  been  leaders  in  the 
Anglican  communion,  was  in  eager  progress.  The  series  of  Oxford 
Tracts  for  the  Times  had  recently  been  finished.  Newman,  Faber,  with 
others  of  their  spiritual  bias,  were  received  into  the  Roman  Church  at 
the  close  of  the  year  1845,  or  early  in  1846.  Manning,  the  Wilber- 


DISCO  URSE. 


43 


forces,  ^vitll  iiiaiiy  others,  followed,  to  be  succeeded  by  those  in  sym¬ 
pathy  with  them,  till  more  than  three  hundred  clergymen,  it  is  said,  of 
the  English  Church,  with  a  multitude  of  lay-members,  some  of  them 
specially  cultured  and  distinguished,  had  accepted  the  Homan  rule.  On 
the  other  hand,  naturally,  a  strong  counter-current,  accelerated  if  not 
provoked  by  this  movement,  was  carrying  men  like  Francis  Newman, 
or  James  Anthony  Froude,  in  a  dilferent  direction,  to  opposite  results. 
Fronde’s  ‘‘Nemesis  of  Faith,”  and  Newman’s  “Phases  of  Faith,”  were 
published  in  a.  d.  1849-1850.  And  while  the  High-church  party  in  the 
Anglican  body  was  strenuously  endeavoring  to  furnish  doctrines  and  a 
ritual  system  by  which  those  meditating  secession  to  Pome  might  be 
satisfied  and  detained,  the  Broad-church  sentiments  and  predispositions 
found  their  representatives  in  men  like  Whately,  Arnold,  Alaurice, 
Stanley,  Kingsley,  and  others.  Pobertson  began  his  brief  but  memo¬ 
rable  ministry  at  Brighton  in  a.  d.  1847.  Hampden  was  made  Bishop  of 
Hereford  at  the  end  of  the  same  year,  though  his  orthodoxy  had  been 
vehemently  challenged.  A  year  or  two  later  the  accomplished  and 
liberal  Milman  became  Dean  of  St.  Paul’s ;  while  Henry  Alford,  after¬ 
ward  the  eminent  Dean  of  Canterbury,  was  preparing  for  his  edition  of 
the  New  Testament,  with  that  commentary  upon  it  parts  of  which,  to 
not  a  few  of  his  fellow  church-men,  were  almost  more  offensive  than  an 
infidel  treatise.  In  a.  d.  1850  was  pronounced  by  the  Judicial  Com¬ 
mittee  of  the  Privy  Council  the  famous  Gorham  Decision,  which  seemed 
to  many  to  deal  destructively  with  the  entire  sacramental  system  of  the 
Anglican  Church. 


Such  divergent  or  opposing  currents  of  thought,  simultaneously 
appearing,  are  of  course  not  infrequent.  They  have  often  been  showm 
more  signally  in  history;  as  when  Bossuet  and  Fenelon  led  in  different 
directions  the  best  minds  of  France,  or  as  when,  more  remarkably,  Cal¬ 
vin  and  Loyola  prepared  at  the  same  time  at  the  University  of  Paris 
for  their  widely  contrasted  labors.  But  in  an  exhibition  less  conspicu¬ 
ous,  on  an  area  more  limited,  such  antitheses  of  opinion  have  in  our 
time  appeared  in  the  English  Church,  with  a  distinctness  and  in  a  force 
which  may  not  be  forgotten. 

In  close  correspondence  with  such  movements  abroad  the  same 
tendencies,  in  either  direction,  were  beginning  to  exhibit  their  effects  on 
this  side  of  the  ocean  when  we  commenced  our  work  in  this  place.  Alany 
ministers,  chiefly  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  prominently  represented  by 
Bishop  Ives,  then  or  soon  afterward  joined  themselves  to  the  Poman  com¬ 
munion,  with  not  a  few  laymen,  and  excellent  women,  of  various  pre¬ 
vious  church-connections.  Mr.  Brownson,  who  had  before  experimented 


44 


DISCO  URSB. 


on  nearly  all  varieties  of  opinion  in  liis  search  for  a  belief,  had  established 
his  Review  in  a.  d.  1844 ;  and  he  was  already  coming  to  be  recognized 
as  the  most  intrepid  American  controversialist  on  the  Papal  side.  The 
subsequent  decrees  of  the  Vatican  Council,  so  energetically  resisted  in 
Europe,  were  generally  welcomed  by  Romanists  here,  as  carrying  to 
development  the  slowly  maturing  Pontihcal  system,  and  practically  ful- 
lilling  the  aspiration  of  ages.  The  aggressive  zeal,  the  effective  power, 
with  the  keen  expectation  of  success,  have  never  been  greater  in  that 
communion,  as  existing  among  ns,  than  they  have  been  of  late.  From 
Bishop  Hughes  to  the  Cardinal  Archbishop,  from  the  plain  churches  of 
forty  years  since  to  the  superb  marble  Cathedral,  the  progress  has  been 
certainly  a  gi’eat  one ;  and  it  has  been  in  the  main  fairly  achieved — by 
labor  among  the  poor,  by  patience  in  priests  and  sagacity  in  prelates,  by 
joyful  constancy  in  doing  the  work  and  in  setting  forth  the  doctrine 
which  to  those  trained  by  the  attractive  and  mandatory  system  appear 
Divine. 

On  the  other  hand,  what  are  vaguely  and  inaccurately  described  as 
“liberal’’  opinions  in  theology  have  enlisted  for  their  support  many 
cultivated  men,  formerly  in  the  ministry  of  one  or  other  of  the  evangel¬ 
ical  communions ;  and  some  hitherto  in  agreement  with  us  appear  now 
to  be  moving  in  a  similar  direction,  though  without  any  very  imperative 
impulse,  and  with  a  certain  diffident  stiffness  quite  in  contrast  with  the 
elastic  ease  of  movement  which  the  thorough-bred  rationalist  commonly 
shows.  In  distinctively  Unitarian  circles  the  general  movement  since 
the  death  of  Dr.  Channing,  in  a.  n.  1842,  has  been,  I  judge,  though 
with  signal  and  noble  exceptions,  toward  a  view  of  Christ,  of  His  work 
and  His  authoritv,  which  those  who  were  united  in  the  movement  at 
the  outset  were  far  from  entertaining.  The  eloquent  discourses  of 
Theodore  Parker  are  now  published  by  the  body  which  during  his  life 
regarded  him  as  a  dangerous  radical.  The  principal  push  and  definite¬ 
ness  of  purpose  appear  to  be  shown  in  this  direction ;  and  not  a  few 
prominent  Unitarian  preachers  are  understood  to  stand  already  on  the 
basis  of  simple  natural  theism  —  considering  Jesus  a  noble  but  mis¬ 
taken  man,  in  advance  of  his  time  but  involved  in  some  of  its  principal 
delusions,  looking  upon  the  sacraments  as  idle  or  essentially  superstitious 
observances,  selecting  texts  with  equal  readiness  from  Pagan  philosophers 
or  from  the  Hew  Testament,  and  not  regarding  even  the  belief  in  a  personal 
God  as  a  necessary  condition  of  frank  and  cordial  spiritual  fellowship. 

I  need  not  multiply  illustrations  of  the  counter-currents  in  spiritual 
tendency,  and  in  the  religious  thought  which  declares  this,  which  have 
been  ceaselessly  eddying  around  us  for  forty  years  ;  nor  of  the  contra- 


DISCO  UIISE. 


45 


dictory  opinions,  differing  from  the  Gospel  as  we  apprehend  that,  and 
often  fiercely  hostile  to  it,  which  have  reverberated  in  i)ooks,  or  been 
popularized  in  journals,  or  more  or  less  successfully  thrust  into  pulpits. 
But  the  facts  are  also  gratefully  to  be  noticed,  that  in  the  various  evan¬ 
gelical  communions  the  tendency  has  been  vigorous  toward  a  more  vital 
and  intimate  sense  of  their  practical  unity,  and  toward  cooperation  in 
Christian  endeavor  wherever  the  way  to  this  has  been  opened  ;  that 
their  pervasive  missionary  spirit  has  become  continually  more  inspiring, 
and  has  given  to  all  their  organized  movement  new  courage  and  hope; 
and  that  the  theology  obtaining  among  them,  not  losing  its  majesty,  or 
the  sharpness  of  its  defining  lines,  has  steadily  become  more  Christo¬ 
centric,  and  has  been  interpreted  with  increasing  distinctness  in  the  line 
of  its  profound  spiritual  significance,  rather  in  that  of  traditional  expo¬ 
sition,  or  of  a  formal  constructive  logic.  The  discussions  of  fifty  years 
ago,  in  regard  to  sin,  the  Divine  purposes,  with  man’s  power  of  contrary 
choice,  left  results  into  which  later  thinkers  have  entered,  and  through 
which  they  have  reached  a  nobler  apprehension  of  the  Lord  and  His 
work.  A  choice  example  of  the  modern  spirit  is  that  presented  by  Dr. 
Bushnell,  whose  fine  genius,  with  his  quick  sensibility  to  the  great 
Christian  facts,  began  to  be  exhibited  in  published  discourses,  and  in 
volumes,  less  than  forty  years  since,  and  whose  influence  has  not  been 
confined  to  this  country.  His  particular  opinions,  upon  certain  points 
in  the  philosophy  of  religion,  may  not  have  attracted  large  numbers  of 
disciples ;  but  it  can  scarcely  be  doubted,  I  think,  that  his  animating 
teachings  have  expanded  horizons  which  were  narrower  before,  have 
brightened  atmospheres  which  inclined  to  be  dull,  and  have  given 
delightful  grace  and  glow  to  the  harder  lines  of  theological  thought. 

O  c5  O  O  O 


Others,  of  a  less  ecumenical  distinction,  have  wrought  in  his  temper, 
and  with  a  similar  effect. 

It  is  also  gladly  to  be  recognized  that  while  this  church  has  stood,  as 
I  have  said,  consistently  and  firmly  on  its  foundation  of  evangelical 
truth,  the  churches  of  the  communion  with  which  it  is  connected,  and 
of  other  communions  holding  essentially  the  same  supreme  doctrine, 
have  been  prospered  and  multiplied  to  a  degree  before  unexampled. 
What  the  number  of  Congregational  churches  was  in  this  country  in 
A.  D.  1846,  I  cannot  say  with  certainty  ;  but  four  years  later  they  were 
reckoned  at  1,971,  with  less  than  two  hundred  thousand  communicants 
(197,197).  At  the  beginning  of  this  year  the  number  of  these  churches 
was  more  than  four  thousand  (4,170),  with  nearly  four  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  communicants  (418,564),  and  with  more  than  half 
a  million  (510,322)  teachers  and  scholars  embraced  in  their  Sunday- 


4G 


DISCO  URSE. 


schools.  These  numbers  are  small,  however,  as  compared  with  those 
representing  the  growth  of  some  other  commnnions.  Taking  from  the 
American  Almanac  for  a.  d.  1851  the  figures  for  the  preceding  year, 
and  from  the  same  publication  for  a.  d.  188(5  the  figures  for  the  last 
year,  some  examples  of  the  increase  are  as  follows  : — 

In  A.  D.  1850  the  Presbyterian  congregations,  North  and  South, 
were  5,1Y3,  with  communicants  451,330  ;  in  a.  d.  1885  the  congregations 
were  11,318,  the  communicants  938,210.  In  a.  d.  1850  the  Lutheran 
congregations  were  reckoned  as  1,604,  with  cornmnnicants  estimated 
at  163,000 ;  in  a.  d.  1885  the  congregations  were  5,558,  with  nearly 
a  million  enrolled  communicants  (950,868).  In  a.  d.  1850  the  Baptist 
congregations,  of  all  sorts,  were  11,863,  with  831,035  communicants;  in 
A.  D.  1885  the  congregations  had  risen  to  28,506,  with  nearly  two  and 
a  half  millions  of  communicants  (2,424,878).  In  a.  r».  1850  the 
Alethodist  congregations.  North  and  South,  Episcopal  and  non-Episcopal, 
were  about  fourteen  thousand,  with  a  million  and  a  quarter  of  commu¬ 
nicants  (1,230,069);  in  a.  d.  1885  the  same  congregations  were  about 
thirty-eight  thousand,  with  communicants  numbering  more  than  three 
and  a  half  millions  (3,686,114).  Even  this  number  fails,  probably,  to 
exhibit  the  truth,  as  the  official  publication  of  the  Methodist  Church 
states  the  number  of  communicants  at  nearly  four  millions  (3,958,156). 
The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church — which  some  now  aspire  to  designate 
as  “  The  American  Catholic  Church  ” — out  of  whose  ancestral  archetype 
in  England  came  the  Methodist  communion,  and  which,  whatever 
attractions  it  may  offer  to  those  inclined  to  it,  has  no  such  hold  as  the 
latter  possesses  on  the  popular  mind,  presents  no  numbers  comparable 
to  these  ;  but  in  place  of  the  twelve  hundred  and  thirty-two  parishes 
credited  to  it  in  a.  d.  1850,  it  has  now,  according  to  its  official  publica¬ 
tion,  thirty -four  hundred  and  fifty  parishes^  with  nearly  four  hundred 
thousand  communicants  (398,098) — this  enumeration  covering,  however, 
sixteen  missionary  districts,  some  of  which  are  in  the  other  hemisphere, 
in  Africa,  China  and  Japan. 

It  has  been  stated,  with  I  think  substantial  correctness,  that  includ¬ 
ing  all  evangelical  denominations,  there  were  in  this  country  in  a.  n. 
1850  forty-three  thousand  local  churches  (43,072),  with  three  and  a  half 
millions  of  communicants  (3,529,987) ;  and  that  in  a.  d.  1880,  thirty 
years  after,  the  churches  numbered  nearly  a  hundred  thousand  (97,090), 
with  more  than  ten  millions  of  communicants  (10,065,963).  Such  a  vast 
and  swift  advance  in  the  number  of  congregations  in  which  the  Gospel 
is  earnestly  preached,  surely  and  wholly  contradicts  the  notion,  some¬ 
times  expressed,  that  the  ancient  majestic  interpretation  of  the  Gospel  is 


DISCO  URSE. 


47 


losing  its  hold  on  the  eager  and  inquisitive  American  mind.  With  a 
progress  at  all  corresponding  to  this,  in  the  thirty  years  to  come,  the 
result  will  be  one  to  give  to  the  continent  a  Christian  renown,  and  to 
offer  the  most  signilicant  promise  for  the  victorious  advance  of  the, 
Gospel  in  all  the  earth. 

I  have  thus  set  before  you,  my  dear  Christian  Friends,  in  general 
outline,  the  character  of  this  church  as  I  have  seen  it  developed  and 
matured  in  the  years  now  closing,  with  such  a  sketch  as  the  time  has 
permitted  of  the  work  which  it  has  done,  of  the  changes  amid  which  its 
life  has  proceeded,  and  of  the  influences  which  have  been  energetic  and 
conspicuous  around  it.  We  can  hardly  help  feeling,  I  think,  as  we 
stand  at  the  end  of  this  review,  that  they  who  united  to  form  this 
church,  most  of  them  then  iu  early  or  in  middle  manhood,  and  who  gave 
to  it  freely  of  thought,  counsel,  and  pecuniary  aid,  did  a  good  and  fruitful 
work.  Their  enthusiasm  for  it  has  been  justified  by  its  history.  Iu 
some  respects,  possibly,  its  work  has  surpassed  their  expectation.  It  is 
an  occasion  of  heartiest  joy  that  twelve  out  of  the  seventj^-one  at  first  in 
the  church  continue  in  it  still ;  aud  to  them,  as  to  us,  it  cannot  but  be  a 
reason  for  gladness,  and  a  motive  to  praise,  that  they  who  have  later 
found  here  their  church-home  have  cordially  maintained  and  nobly  re¬ 
inforced  the  early  spirit,  only  building  more  broadly  on  the  primitive 
basis.  I  cannot  doubt  that  this  will  continue  to  be  the  fact,  while  the 
church  abides;  that  however  rapid  and  however  surprising  may  be  the 
changes  in  the  city  or  the  country,  in  Christendom  or  the  world,  this 
church  will  continue,  still  honoring  in  its  faith  the  spiritual  facts  which 
years  and  changes  do  not  touch,  still  doing  the  work  entrusted  to  it,  for 
the  Master  whom  it  worships,  for  the  cause  which  it  loves.  It  will  be 
to  the  end,  what  it  was  at  the  beginning,  a  household  of  God,  built  upon 
the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  Himself  being 
the  chief  corner-stone.  Ideas  do  not  die.  Tlie  truth  of  God,  the 
Redemption  of  Christ,  the  grace  of  the  Spirit,  are  subject  to  no  mutation 
or  decay.  They  will  be  here  when  we  are  gone.  An  energy  from  them 
is  vitally  involved  in  the  conviction  and  spirit  of  the  church,  which  will 
not  vanish  as  suns  and  seasons  pursue  their  course.  To  those  who  come 
after  us  the  occasion  for  declaring  them  will  still  be  presented.  To  us  it 
has  been  given  to  see  the  august  plans  of  Providence  unfolding  amid 
storms  of  thunder  and  fire,  or  evolved  more  silently,  but  almost  as 
signally,  in  civil  and  political  change,  in  the  growth  of  cities,  in  multi¬ 
plied  mechanisms,  in  expansions  of  commerce,  in  the  prosperous  progress 
of  the  peoples  and  nations  which  honor  the  Master.  Those  plans  are 
still  moving  toward  supreme  consummation.  They  are  lifting  valleys, 


48 


DISCO  URSE. 


and  leveling  liills,  to  make  a  way  before  the  wheels  of  Messiah’s  Throne. 
And  they  who  are  to  succeed  us  here — associated  as  already  they  are, 
for  prayer,  and  counsel,  and  beautiful  enterprise — will  have  their  work, 
as  we  have  had  ours,  to  do  for  Him  whom  nothing  misleads  and  nothing 
bathes,  whose  Incarnation  was  the  new  birth  of  history,  whose  Cross 
links  heaven  and  earth  together,  whose  glory  at  last  shall  fill  the  world ! 

It  is  a  great  thing  to  have  helped  to  establish,  to  have  helped  to 
upbuild,  a  church  like  this.  He  who  puts  his  life  into  its  growth 
‘‘chooseth  a  tree  that  will  not  rot.”  Hot  only  the  community  immedi¬ 
ately  around  it,  but  others  remoter,  will  take  from  it  incitements  and 
helps  while  years  go  on.  A  reward  will  come,  ample  and  sure,  for 
whatever  of  service  and  of  sacrifice  has  been  ours  on  its  behalf.  In 
the  final  triumph  of  righteousness  and  truth,  wherever  the  Gospel  has 
dominion  in  the  earth,  we  shall  have  part. 

I  cannot  but  feel,  too,  that  all  will  see  in  reviewing  this  history  how 
natural  it  has  been  that  such  a  church  should  attract  to  itself  the  strong 
and  the  enduring  afiPection  of  those  lono^  tamiliar  with  it.  There  are 
obvious  limitations  upon  its  appeal  to  the  public  attention.  It  wants 
the  enthusiasm  excited  by  vast  and  changing  congregations,  gathered 
from  widely  separated  districts  by  the  fame  of  a  preacher,  by  the 
frequent  discussion  of  novel  or  semi-secular  subjects,  or  by  the  recog¬ 
nized  relation  of  a  pulpit  to  the  drifts  and  swells  of  political  thought. 
It  wants  the  attraction  which  may  be  connected  with  eccentricities  of 
manner,  or  with  specially  elaborate  musical  services,  with  the  sumptuous 
array  of  a  rich  ceremonial,  or  even  with  a  constantly  fervid  tone  of 
missionary  appeal.  And  it  lacks,  of  course,  any  impulse  that  might 
come  from  an  intense  denominational  temper,  eager  for  its  own  and 
critical  toward  others.  But  to  those  who  here  have  had  their  home,  the 
spiritual  assembly,  and  in  its  measure  the  outward  church,  have  a 
peculiar  and  sacred  beauty : — from  the  Gospel  here  continuously  set 
forth,  with  the  reach  of  its  stupendous  declarations  concerning  realms 
which  eye  hath  not  seen,  with  the  tenderness  of  its  pathos,  the  ardor  of 
its  incessant  invitations,  the  majestic  scope  and  height  of  its  promises  ; 
from  the  lovely,  solemn,  and  inspiring  sacraments  here  administered  ; 
from  the  Christian  fellowships  here  formed  and  matured ;  from  the 
ripened  knowledges,  and  the  ever  deeper  satisfactions  of  faith,  here 
attained ;  from  the  common  enterprises  prompted  and  promoted,  for 
the  good  of  mankind,  and  the  glory  of  God. 

The  very  building  has  come  to  be  associated,  to  many  of  us,  with 
whatever  has  been  superlative  in  our  thought,  with  the  sweetest  comforts 
we  have  found  in  our  grief,  the  richest  incentives  to  the  wise  and 


DISCO  UR8E, 


49 


beneficent  use  of  our  strengtli,  the  supreme  expectations  concerning  the 
Future  which  have  crowned  with  their  light  and  anointed  with  their 
chrism  our  common  shaded  and  secular  days.  Without  superstitious 
veneration  for  places  we  understand  something  of  the  moral  fasci¬ 
nation  which  particular  shrines  have  had  for  their  worshippers,  since 
within  these  walls  Tabor  and  Hei’mon  have  rejoiced  before  us  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord,  the  darkness  and  the  splendor  over  Cal¬ 
vary  and  Olivet  have  been  manifest  to  our  souls,  we  have  walked 
with  the  Lord  and  heard  His  apostles,  and  have  seen  the  skies  parted 
above  us,  in  the  Advent,  and  for  the  Ascension.  To  our  pro- 
foundest  spiritual  experience  this  has  been — to  us  and  to  others  may 
it  always  remain ! — none  other  than  the  House  of  God,  the  Gate  of 
Heaven. 

It  has  come  also  to  be  associated,  in  a  way  most  delightful  to  our 
affectionate  human  sensibilities,  with  the  many  who  have  gone  from 
among  us  to  the  skies,  with  the  good,  the  brave,  the  beautiful  and  the 
wise,  who  have  sat  beside  us  to  listen  to  the  truth  which  now  they  hear 
from  the  Master’s  lips ;  who  have  joined  in  praise  with  ours  the  voices 
which  now  are  attuned  to  seraphs’  harps ;  who  have  passed  from  the 
feast  of  love  at  this  Table  to  the  immortal  Marriage  Supper !  Little 
children,  who  here  were  baptized,  and  whose  feet  trod  early  the  Heav¬ 
enly  streets,  walk  again  in  beauty  before  us,  as  we  ‘enter  these  doors. 
Silent  forms  enter  the  pews,  which  stir  no  rustle,  and  fill  no  space. 
Beloved  friends,  partakers  of  our  joy,  or  sharers  of  our  most  intimate 
life,  seem  evidently  present,  as  we  bow  in  prayer,  or  arise  in  praise. 
We  are  consciously  encompassed  by  a  great  cloud  of  witnesses;  and  the 
very  building  becomes  vital  and  eloquent  with  tender  intimations  of  the 
ineffable  mystery  and  majesty  of  celestial  relations.  To  many  of  us  no 
other  can  be  like  it,  however  surpassing  it  in  brilliance  of  color  or  vast 
proportions.  Its  arches  enclose  the  home  of  our  hearts.  The  air  which 
fills  it  is  laden  for  us  with  memories  and  with  prophecies.  At  some 
time,  I  trust,  Memorial  Windows  will  find  in  it  their  fitting  place,  to 
show,  as  often  as  men  enter  these  aisles,  the  heavenly  radiance  shining 
through  names  here  honored  and  beloved.  If  not  in  our  time,  then 
surely  by  the  young,  into  whose  hands  this  church  must  soon  come,  and 
who  will  take  with  it  a  rich  inheritance  of  remembrance  and  incentive, 
this  work  will  be  done. 

I  do  not  wish  to  obtrude  upon  you  any  expression  of  personal  feel¬ 
ing;  but  it  cannot  be  amiss  that  I  frankly  say  that  it  has  been  my  own 
ever  deepening  and  controlling  attachment  to  the  church — to  the  house¬ 
holds  embraced  in  it,  to  what  is  peculiar  in  its  services  and  its  spirit,  to 


50 


DISCO  VRSE. 


the  work  which  it  has  done  in  the  city  and  for  the  land,  to  the  very 
building  which  I  have  had  my  pleasant  part  in  enlarging  and  adorning, — 
which  has  kept  me  here  so  many  years,  for  all  the  best  years  of  my  life. 
I  came  hither  in  my  youth,  from  one  of  the  loveliest  parishes  of  isTew 
England,  to  do  the  work  which  might  here  await  me,  not  knowing  in 
particulars  what  that  was  to  be,  or  how  long  it  might  keep  me,  and  with 
no  plan  whatever  of  spending  my  life  here.  It  has  never  been  my  govern¬ 
ing  impression  that  a  Minister  should  continue,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
for  all  his  years,  in  a  parish  to  which  he  had  early  come.  Sometimes 
this  is  well,  perhaps  oftener  it  is  not.  I  have  not  been  without  occa¬ 
sional  opportunities,  of  some  of  which  you  have  known,  to  go  elsewhere, 
to  other  pastorates,  or  to  Collegiate  or  Seminary  chairs ;  and  some  of 
these  have  been  so  attractive,  and  have  been  presented  with  such  earnest 
persuasion,  that  I  have  been  almost  moved  to  yield.  But  no  distinct 
providential  demand  has  appeared  in  them,  such  as  I  thought  I  plainly 
saw  when  coming  liither.  On  the  other  hand,  special  hindrances  have 
appeared,  in  each  principal  case,  to  make  going  less  easy  ;  wdiile  the 
hold  of  this  place  and  people  upon  me  has  proved  always  too  strong  to 
be  broken.  I  could  not  leave,  without  a  painful  wrench  of  the  spirit, 
the  friendly  neighborhood,  the  young  institutions  whose  appeal  is  so 
keen  to  heart  and  hope,  the  constantly  widening  circle  of  households 
known  to  me  from*  their  youth  up,  with  which  my  relations  have  been 
always  delightful.  This  house  itself  has  been  sacred  to  me,  as  that  in 
which  Grod’s  Spirit  has  been  manifest,  to  my  heart  as  to  yours ;  in  which 
m}"  children,  like  yours,  have  been  baptized,  and  afterward  received  to 
the  communion  of  the  church,  and  later  married ;  in  which,  indeed,  the 
children's  children  have  been  brought  to  the  font,  to  be  led  from  thence 
in  faith  and  prayer,  on  to  the  Supper. 

I  am  grateful  to  God  that  He  has  permitted  me  to  dwell  so  long  in 
the  city  which  has  been  kind  to  me  beyond  my  deserts,  and  which  never 
was  fuller  than  at  this  hour  of  noble  promise ;  in  the  church  which  has 
responded  with  ready  acceptance  to  every  best  impulse  that  I  could 
give,  and  which  has  been  always,  to  me  and  mine,  a  Christian  home 
full  of  charm  and  reward.  I  thank  Him  for  the  manifold  beautiful 
work  which  He  here  set  before  me,  and  to  which  He  has  permitted  me 
to  give  whatever  of  strength  or  of  grace  He  has  furnished.  I  trust 
that  these  scenes  will  still  surround  me,  and  that  in  your  affectionate 
fellowship  wdll  be  to  me  gladness  and  cheer,  until  I  cease  from  public 
labor.  I  trust  that  the  spirit  which  God  has  moved  us  to  seek  for  this 
church — believing  and  thoughtful,  affectionate  and  devout,  conscientious 
and  catholic,  swift  in  motion  to  do  the  Lord's  work,  elate  in  hope  before 


DISCO  URSK 


51 


the  promises  shining  from  afar — will  still  continue  to  quicken  and  mould 
it  when  one  by  one  we  shall  all  have  gone ! 

8o,  my  Friends,  with  gratitude  for  the  past,  with  gladness  for  the 
present,  and  with  happy  and  large  expectation  for  the  future,  let  us 
to-day  re-consecrate  this  church,  by  re-consecrating  ourselves,  to  Him 
in  the  faith  of  whom  it  was  founded ;  to  the  vision  of  whom  many 
from  among  us  have  gone  already  ;  before  whom  wait  resplendent  ages  of 
peace  and  progress  on  the  earth,  the  fruit  of  His  coming,  the  rew^ard  of 
His  Cross ;  around  whom  stands,  in  a  beauty  unblemished,  with  palms 
and  song,  the  Church  Triumphant!  and  unto  Him,  for  that  which  He 
hath  done,  for  that  which  He  hereafter  shall  do,  be  now  and  ever  all  the 
praise !  Amen, 


i«Cv  '■’  r  .-;**'■ 

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n-^  jf., 

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,  ■  v. 


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f  •  1 1.  • 


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?’>’/#■“'  .J-  ‘i'-'--  ■'i; -fl  •■, 


i#-'- ■■■ 


APPENDIX. 


PRESENTATION  OF  A  BRONZE  STATUE  TO  DR.  STORRS,  BY  THE 

SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 

The  Sunday-schools  of  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims  being  assembled  in 
the  Lecture-room  on  Thursday  afternoon,  ISTovemher  18th,  the  following 
hymn  was  first  sung  : — 


Round  the  Lord  in  glory  seated, 

Cherubini  and  Seraphim 
Filled  His  temple,  and  repeated, 

Each  to  each,  th’  alternate  hymn  : 

“Lord,  Thy  glory  fills  the  Heaven, 

Earth  is  with’  its  fullness  stored  ; 

Unto  Thee  be  glory  given. 

Holy  !  Holy  !  Holy  !  Lord  !  ” 

With  His  seraph -train  before  Him, 

With  His  holy  Church  below. 

Thus  conspire  we  to  adore  Him, 

Bid  we  thus  our  anthem  flow  : 

“Lord,  Thy  glory  fills  the  Heaven, 

Earth  is  with  its  fullness  stored  ; 

Unto  Thee  be  glory  given. 

Holy  !  Holy  !  Holy  !  Lord  !  ”  Amen. 

The  Superintendent  of  the  Church-school,  Mr.  George  P.  Stockwell,  then 
spoke,  as  follows  : — Dr.  Storrs,  this  meeting  of  the  officers,  teachers,  and  chil¬ 
dren  of  our  Sunday-schools,  with  you  our  Pastor  and  our  friend,  means  some¬ 
thing  more  than  the  pleasure  which  all  of  us  feel  at  thus  meeting  you  face  to 
face,  and  being  permitted  to  grasp  your  hand  in  congratulation.  It  means  that 
we  not  only  manifest  our  pleasure  because  of  your  presence  with  us  this  after¬ 
noon,  l)ut  that  we  express  our  gratitude  and  thanksgiving  to  God,  that  He  has 
permitted  you  for  so  many  years  to  he  the  Pastor  and  Minister  of  this  Church  and 
Society  of  the  Pilgrims.  Strong  and  tender  have  been,  and  are,  the  chords  of 


54 


APPENDIX. 


love  binding  ns  together  as  Pastor  and  people.  In  coming  hither  you  brought  a 
blessing  to  this  church — the  blessing  of  such  unity,  strength,  and  consecration, 
in  and  to  the  work  of  the  Master,  as  have  been  given  to  but  few  churches.  In 
coming  here  you  brought  a  blessing  to  this  city,  in  which  you  have  during  all 
these  years  been  actively  interested,  and  have  been  an  inspiration  to  others  who 
have  worked  with  you,  in  projecting  and  pushing  forward  to  completion  the 
various  Christian,  educational,  and  philanthropic  works  which  stand  to-day  the 
pride  and  glory  of  the  city.  We  might,  on  an  occasion  like  this,  multiply  into 
]nany  w^ords  our  appreciation  of  all  that  you  have  been  to  us  as  individuals,  to 
us  as  families,  to  this  church  of  Christ,  and  to  the  city  of  Brooklyn ;  but  we  for¬ 
bear,  knowing  as  we  do  that  you  prefer  that  appreciation  which  is  seen  in  the 
eye,  felt  in  the  hand-clasp,  and  witnessed  in  the  life,  rather  than  words  of  praise 
spoken  to  you  by  our  lips. 

We  have  gathered  in  these  rooms  before  you,  not  as  the  church  of  the  past, 
not  as  those  actively  interested  with  you  in  the  work  and  service  of  the  church 
forty,  or  even  thirty  years  ago ;  these  have,  for  the  most  part,  passed  into  the 
skies.  Nor  yet,  to  any  considerable  extent,  are  we  here  as  the  church  of  the 
present ;  but  rather  as  the  church  of  the  future — the  children,  all  of  them  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree,  thank  God  !  formed  under  the  guiding  and  moulding 
influence  of  your  teaching  and  life.  These  children,  and  those  coming  with 
them,  the  officers  and  teachers  of  the  Schools  here  represented,  are  glad  to  meet 
you  this  afternoon ;  and  it  has  been  our  great  pleasure  to  bring  with  us  a  testi¬ 
monial  of  our  affectionate  regard  for  you.  It  is,  largely,  the  gift  of  the  children  ; 
and  as  such  we  are  sure  that  it  will  be  highly  appreciated  by  you.  We  have 
selected  this  statue  in  bronze,  and  the  pedestal  on  which  it  rests,  as  our  gift. 
The  bronze  figure  represents  Labor — not  the  modern  “  Knight  of  Labor  — but 
let  us  interpret  it  as  representing  Labor,  dignified  and  God-like,  because  conse¬ 
crated  to  Christ,  the  Master  Workman.  Such  has  been  your  labor  here,  during 
the  forty  years  of  your  ministry.  You  have  been  a  workman  that  needed  not 
to  be  ashamed,  rightly  dividing  the  Word  of  Truth.  The  inscription  we  propose 
to  put  on  this  pedestal  is  as  follows : — 

“For  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  blessed  thee  in  all  the  works  of  thy 
HANDS.  These  forty  years  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  been  with  thee.” 

We  present  this  gift  to  you,  together  with  our  love,  and  with  the  earnest 
wish  for  your  long  continued  life,  and  strength,  and  usefulness  in  this  church, 
and  among  this  people. 

REPLY  OF  DR.  STORRS. 

My  dear  Friends  : — Nothing  could  have  been  further  from  my  mind  when  I 
suggested  to  the  Committee  of  the  church  some  weeks  ago — as  they  approached 
me  in  regard  to  an  observance  of  this  anniversary— that  I  should  like  to  meet  the 
Sunday-schools  of  the  church  and  of  the  Mission-chapel,  than  the  thought  that 
possibly  you  might  present  to  me  some  testimonial  of  your  regard.  I  certainly 


APPENDIX, 


55 


accept  it  with  very  great  tenderness  and  happiness  in  my  heart,  for  the  gift,  and 
preeminently  for  the  manner  in  which  the  gift  comes,  and  for  the  love  which  it 
expresses,  which,  I  trust,  will  be  as  permanent  as  the  bronze  itself.  IMy  appre¬ 
ciation  of  your  affection,  and  of  this  memorial  of  it,  would  certainly  endure  as 
long  as  it  does,  if  my  life  were  to  continue  so  long. 

I  desired  to  have  this  meeting,  in  the  first  place,  because  I  am  personally 
very  much  attached  to  the  children  of  this  congregation.  Many  of  you,  nearly 
all  perhaps  who  are  here,  and  who  are  directly  connected  with  the  congregation, 
I  have  baptized.  Many  of  you  are  the  children  of  those  whom  I  baptized 
years  ago ;  and  I  remember  that  the  first  sharp  impression  which  I  ever  had  of 
growing  older  was  when  a  gentleman,  taller  than  I  am,  and  larger  than  I  am, 
brought  his  child  to  be  baptized,  while  I  recollected,  as  he  stood  before  me,  that 
when  he  was  a  babe  I  had  held  him  in  my  hands  and  baptized  him  !  I  think  I 
had  a  keener  sense  of  growing  older,  at  that  time,  than  I  have  ever  had  since — 
certainly  than  I  had  ever  had  before. 

It  is  always  a  delight  to  me,  when  a  child  comes  to  me  on  the  street,  and 
says,  “How  do  you  do.  Dr.  Storrs”?  putting  out  his  or  her  hand  to  take  mine. 
Sometimes  I  may  not  instantly  remember  those  who  thus  come  to  me;  for  children 
in  this  day  have  a  singular  trick  of  growing  older,  pretty  fast.  Between  four 
years  and  nine  years,  or  between  seven  years  and  twelve  years,  they  change  so 
rapidly  that  one  hardly  can  keep  their  appearance  in  mind.  I  wish  some  kind 
of  arrangement  were  possible  by  which  each  child  should  carry  a  ticket,  saying, 
“This  is” — so  and  so;  for  then  I  should  always  know  you!  You,  however, 
always  know  me,  because  I  have  got  through  with  all  this  business  of  growing 
larger.  And  so,  whenever  you  see  me  on  the  street,  if  you  will  just  come  and 
put  your  hand  into  mine,  and  say,  “  Good-morning,  Dr.  Storrs  ” — you  will  give 
me  cheer  for  the  day.  I  have  always  felt  that  such  a  greeting  added  beauty  and 
enjoyment  to  the  hours  which  followed.  In  London  the  fasliion  is,  and  here  to 
some  extent,  but  here  not  so  generally,  for  every  gentleman,  as  he  goes  down  town 
in  the  morning,  to  wear  a  flower  in  his  button-hole.  Your  greetings  have  been 
to  me  as  the  flower  in  the  button-hole,  the  perfume  of  which  I  have  been  delight¬ 
fully  inhaling  all  the  day,  when  you  have  come  to  me,  on  your  way  to  school 
perhaps,  and  have  said,  simply,  “  How  do  you  do  ”? 

That  is  one  reason  why  I  wanted  to  see  you  all  together.  And  tlien,  I 
thought  that  this  is  a  sort  of  Thanksgiving  occasion.  I  do  not  mean  that  it  is 
a  Thanksgiving  occasion  on  the  part  of  the  people  because  they  have  got  through 
with  forty  years  of  my  ministry,  and  these  are  not  to  come  any  more ;  but  it  is 
a  sort  of  Thanksgiving  to  us  all,  that  we  have  been  permitted  to  dwell  together 
in  such  happy  harmony  and  common  usefulness  for  so  many  years.  And  a 
Thanksgiving  occasion,  without  children,  is  one  of  the  dreariest  things  that  can 
be.  I  never  knew  how  dreary  until  two  or  three  years  ago  it  happened  to  us 
at  our  house  to  have  a  Thanksgiving  where  there  was  no  child  present.  I  thought 
then  that  it  was  about  as  sombre  and  funereal  an  occasion  as  one  can  easily  find. 


56 


APPENDIX. 


So,  on  this  Thanksgiving  I  was  anxious  to  meet  the  children  in  the  afternoon, 
whether  we  had  any  meeting  of  parents  and  grown  people  in  the  evening  or  not. 

Then,  besides  that,  I  have  the  feeling  to  which  Mr.  Stockwell  has  adverted 
in  the  delightful  words  of  welcome  and  congratulation  which  he  has  spoken,  that 
here  I  look  into  the  future.  I  sit  not  unfrequently,  in  the  summer-time,  on  the 
piazza  of  my  house  in  the  country,  and  with  a  spy-glass  look  over  upon  the 
Connecticut  shore,  where,  as  a  lady  said  one  day,  through  the  clear,  bright  air  you 
can  almost  see  the  door-knobs  shining  in  the  sun ;  and  it  is  always  interesting 
and  surprising  to  me  to  see  how  distant  objects  are  brought  close  to  my  eyes 
through  that  arrangement  of  the  lenses.  Here,  in  somewhat  the  same  way,  I 
look  into  your  faces,  and  I  see  those  who  are  to  be  in  the  Church  of  the  Pil¬ 
grims,  and  those  who  are  to  be  leaders  in  Brooklyn,  twenty,  thirty,  forty,  and 
fifty  years  hence.  ]^ot  all  of  you  will  be  here  then ;  not  all  of  you  will  be  in 
this  world  then;  but  I  hope  that  many  will  be,  and  that  you  will  be  in  this  church 
what  your  parents  have  been — rejoicing  in  it,  rejoicing  to  keep  it  a  Christian 
home,  as  it  has  been  to  us  all  in  all  these  years,  and  rejoicing  to  contribute  to 
make  it  effective  in  usefulness,  so  far  as  your  influence  in  it  can  reach,  or  your 
influence  through  it  can  extend. 

These  years  to  come  will  pass  very  rapidly  with  you.  It  seems  wonderful 
to  me  now,  as  I  stand  here,  that  it  is  forty  years  to-morrow  night  since  I  stood 
in  yonder  pulpit  for  the  first  time.  These  mottoes  upon  the  walls — “  1846  ” — 
“  1886  ” — represent  a  long  interval.  I  do  not  know  exactly,  by  the  way,  why 
the  “  1886  ”  is  in  the  colored  flowers  which  are  given  to  it,  unless  it  be  a 
pleasant  and  flattering  intimation  on  the  part  of  those  vlio  put  it  there  that 
their  Pastor,  in  these  forty  years,  has  become  a  well-read  man  !  I  shall  accept 
it  as  such,  at  any  rate,  and  I  only  wish  it  were  more  true  in  that  intimation. 
The  interval  seems  a  very  great  one,  as  you  look  at  it  there  ;  but  it  has  passed 
rapidly ;  and  so  it  will  have  done  with  you  when,  forty  years  hence,  you  look 
back,  if  you  do  look  back,  to  this  afternoon  and  to  this  anniversary. 

I  have  the  strongest  desire  for  you  all,  such  as  every  parent  has  for  his  own 
children,  that  these  years  which  are  before  you  shall  be  years  of  great  happi¬ 
ness.  They  may  be  ;  and  I  trust  they  will  be.  I  remember,  when  a  little  boy, 
people  used  to  say  to  me  sometimes  that  I  was  having  the  happiest  years  of  my 
life.  I  did  not  believe  it  then,  and  I  have  believed  it  less  and  less  ever  since. 
It  is  not  so.  Happier  years  come  later  in  life.  I  suspect  the  happiest  years  of 
all,  with  those  who  live  wisely,  are  the  last  years ;  and  that  a  childhood  which 
has  had  a  great  deal  of  cloud  over  it,  with  a  great  deal  of  shower,  oftentimes 
comes  to  an  afternoon  as  radiant  and  as  lovely  as  this  has  been,  and  to  an  even¬ 
ing  as  tranquil  and  superb  as  we  hope  this  evening  is  to  be.  Every  person  has 
a  right,  and  is  under  obligation,  to  live  with  reference  to  a  happy  life  here,  and 
to  a  happier  life  hereafter.  We  are  not  to  think  about  a  happiness  to  come  by 
and  by,  merely,  and  let  the  present  go  with  no  experience  of  it.  We  are  to 
try  to  glorify  God  by  being  happy  here — as  these  vines  and  flowers  glorify 


A  P  PEND  IX. 


57 


Him  by  being  verdurous  and  charming  in  tlieir  hues  and  fragrance.  The  question 
is,  therefore,  a  very  important  one  for  every  person — how  tliat  happiness  is  to  be 
secured  ?  It  was  the  thought  of  you,  in  connection  with  that  question,  wliich 
led  me,  as  much  as  anything,  to  desire  to  be  here  with  you  a  few  minutes  this 
afternoon. 

We  hear  it  said  oftentimes,  and  said  truly,  that  faith  in  Christ,  and  in  His 
Gospel,  is  the  condition  of  all  true  happiness  on  earth;  but  we  sometimes,  I  think, 
make  too  great  a  mystery  of  that  faith.  It  is  simply  affectionate  and  praising 
confidence.  You  know  what  happiness  such  confidence  gives.  For  instance,  you 
are  lost,  as  some  of  you  may  have  been  lost  in  the  woods  this  summer,  when 
perhaps  you  had  been  out  on  a  picnic  and  had  lost  your  way.  When  you  see  a 
guide  approaching  whom  you  know,  and  whom  you  can  trust,  what  perfect  relief 
there  is  to  your  spirit !  Possibly  you  have  been  lost  at  some  time  in  the  streets 
of  the  city.  I  do  not  know  whether  any  of  you  are  subject  to  that  peculiar  trick 
of  the  eye  which  afflicts  me  sometimes,  when  I  get  everything  on  the  wrong  side 
of  the  street.  I  remember  that  in  one  of  the  cities  of  Europe — the  beautiful  city 
of  Florence, — the  omnibus  taking  me  from  station  to  hotel  made  a  sudden  turn 
which  I  did  not  recognize,  and  when  I  got  out  of  it  everything  was  wrong ;  the 
sun  rose  in  the  west,  and  set  in  the  east ;  the  river  Arno  was  running  right  from 
the  Mediterranean  toward  the  Apennines;  and  I' could  not  make  anything  seem 
right  in  the  points  of  the  compass.  I  never  have  found  it  right,  so  far  as  that 
city  is  concerned ;  and  if  I  now  think  of  anything  in  Florence  as  being  on  the 
south  side  of  the  Arno  I  know  that  it  is  on  the  north  side,  and  so  rectify  my 
impression  by  my  judgment.  Some  of  you  may  have  been  lost  in  the  city  in 
that  way,  perhaps,  when  everything  has  seemed  unfamiliar  and  strange  to  you. 
Then,  if  you  saw  a  friend,  your  confidence  in  him,  and  in  his  willingness  to  guide 
you,  what  a  full-brimmed  source  it  was  of  joy  and  gladness  !  You  could  shout 
for  joy,  and  leap  and  dance  ;  whether  you  had  had  any  lessons  in  dancing  or  not, 
you  danced  on  the  pavement,  in  glad  anticipation  of  the  guidance  which  he 
could  give.  It  is  just  so  when  a  physician  comes,  when  we  are  feeling  wretch¬ 
edly  ill,  and  know  that  he  will  give  us  something  to  help  us.  It  is  so  when  we 
are  perplexed  and  curious  about  some  subject,  and  a  person  comes  who  will  cer¬ 
tainly  be  able  to  give  us  the  needed  information. 

That  is  confidence.  Now,  confidence  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in  Himself, 
and  His  wonderful  work,  and  in  His  promises — that  is  Faith.  Do  not  make  a 
mystery  about  it.  There  is  nothing  mysterious  in  its  nature.  It  is  the  sim- 
])lest  thing  in  the  world — a  full  heart-felt  confiding  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in 
His  character  and  redemption,  in  His  directions,  and  in  His  promises.  It  is  that 
which  gives  relief  and  gladness.  It  is  that  out  of  which  comes  a  beautiful, 
noble,  and  holy  life.  Then  you  know  that  you  are  a  child  of  God,  since  you 
are  a  follower  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  and  you  have  the  celestial  gates  open 
before  you,  because  this  simple  affectionate  confidence  in  Him  is  that  which  God 
asks  in  order  that  we  may  attain  eternal  life.  That  faith  is  like  the  wing  of 


58 


APPENDIX. 


the  bird.  People  say  sometimes  tliat  tliere  is  a  burden  in  faith.  There  is  no 
more  burden  in  faith  than  there  is  burden  in  the  wing  of  the  bird.  Tlie  wing 
is  not  a  weiglit,  it  is  a  means  of  ascending.  So  it  is  with  the  human  spirit. 
Faith  gives  it  Avings,  by  which  it  soars  into  the  vision  and  felicity  of  God  Him¬ 
self.  That  is  always,  therefore,  the  first  thing.  There  iiever  is  any  real  hai)j)i- 
ness  in  this  world — I  do  not  care  what  the  world  may  say,  I  do  not  care  what 
knowledge  and  high  position  may  do  for  one,  I  do  not  care  what  agreeable  social 
circumstances  there  may  be — there  is  no  thorough  happiness  in  this  world, 
where  there  is  no  faith — faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in  His  Avord  and  AA'ork, 
in  His  precepts,  and  in  His  majestic  promises. 

Then,  AAuth  that  must  come  also  the  desire  for  usefulness  to  others.  A  child 
sometimes  thinks,  “Why,  I  am  to  receive,  and  not  to  give!”  Well,  that  is 
true,  as  far  as  the  very  beginning  of  childhood  is  concerned,  and  the  earliest 
infantile  years.  But,  there  is  no  little  child  here  so  young  that  he  or  she  can¬ 
not  begin  to  be  useful  to  others,  and  in  that  \Any  to  gain  happiness.  You  know 
that,  as  Avell  as  I  do.  I  Avill  shoAv  you  that  you  knoAv  it.  You  find,  for  example, 
when  you  give  your  gift  at  Christmas  or  at  Yew  Year’s — particularly  if  it  is 
something  Avhich  you  have  made  yourself,  or  if  it  is  something  Avhich  you  have 
saved  money  for,  AAdiich  otherAvise  you  might  have  spent  upon  yourself — that 
while  you  give  happiness  by  the  gift,  you  gam  happiness  also.  It  is  very  sweet 
to  you  to  think  that  you  have  been  useful  to  another — :to  father,  mother,  brother, 
or  sister,  or  even  to  a  stranger.  If  a  stranger  asks  you  on  the  street  where  a 
particular  house  is,  and  you  tell  him,  and  then  go  Avith  him  a  few  steps  in  order  to 
shoAv  him, '‘you  are  hai)pier  for  that  small  act  all  the  day  long — more  happy  than 
if  some  benefit  had  been  conferred  upon  you.  Usefulness  is  the  real  spring  of 
enjoyment.  That  is  one  secret  of  what  the  Master  meant  Avheii  he  said,  “  He 
who  Avill  lose  his  life  for  my  sake,  shall  find  it.”  We  gain  by  giving.  If  Ave 
are  all  the  time  receiving,  and  not  giving  out,  we  get  to  be  like  one  of  these 
stagnant  ponds  into  Avhich  Avaters  are  running,  but  from  Avhich  Avaters  are  not 
going  forth,  and  which  so  become  foul  and  pestilential.  There  is  nobody  so 
unhappy  as  a  thoroughly  sellish  person  ;  because,  as  the  Master  said,  “  It  is 
more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.”  We  find  happiness  in  eA^ery  act  of  kind¬ 
ness  that  we  do  to  others.  Usefulness,  united  with  faith  in  the  Master,  is  the 
essential  secret  of  a  happy  life. 

In  order  that  Ave  may  have  this  faith,  this  usefulness,  and  the  happiness  which 
comes  from  it,  we  need  to  be  very  intimate  with  God  in  prayer.  Children 
sometimes  think  that  prayer  is  only  the  utterance  of  the  Minister  in  the  pulpit ; 
or  that  it  is  the  utterance  of  some  great  congregation  in  a  hymn  of  prayer.  But, 
prayer  is  just  the  expression  of  a  child’s  desire  to  God.  We  ail  are  children  before 
God ;  and  Ave  Avant  to  be  perfectly  confiding,  perfectly  simple,  in  our  prayer. 
When  you  go  to  your  father  or  mother,  for  instance,  because  you  Avant  a  par¬ 
ticular  gift,  or  a  particular  indulgence  of  some  kind  not  harmful  to  you,  you  do 
not  go  and  make  a  speech ;  you  do  not  feel  that  you  need  to  write  your  request 


APPENDIX. 


59 


beforehand ;  but  you  go  and  speak,  right  out  of  your  childish  lips,  the  request ; 
you  look  the  prayer,  for  the  prayer  may  be  in  your  eye  as  much  as  on  your  lips ; 
it  may  he  in  your  eager  hand,  just  as  much  as  it  is  in  the  eye  or  on  the  lip.  That 
is  ])rayer — prayer  to  a  parent,  or  to  a  friend,  for  some  present  good.  Now,  that 
is  ecpially  prayer  to  God.  You  come  to  Him  at  evening  and  at  morning  to  ask 
Him  for  that  which  you  need,  for  that  which  He  sees  that  you  need  ;  and  if  you 
do  this  He  will  answer,  and  you  will  have  this  confidence  of  the  heart,  and  the 
happiness  which  conies  from  usefulness,  constantly  present  in  your  life.  Praying 
is  not  a  thing  that  can  be  done  once  for  all  the  day,  or  once  for  all  the  week,  any 
more  than  you  can  eat  your  bread  for  a  week  to  come  to-morrow  morning.  But, 
it  is  “Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread.”  AVe.must  make  daily  petitions  to  God  ; 
and  a  child-like,  simple,  confiding,  and  heart-felt  request  will  always  bring  the 
gift  we  need — if  not  always  the  gift  we  seek.  Peo})le  sometimes  get  much  richer 
blessings  in  answer  to  prayer  than  they  anticipate,  even  when  these  were  not  what 
they  sought.  You  have  heard  the  story  of  the  Indian  climbing  the  mountain 
in  South  America,  who  being  in  danger  of  slipping  grasped  a  bush  and  pulled 
it  up  ?  The  bush  yielded  in  his  hand,  and  did  not  hold  him  ;  but  he  was  caught 
a  little  lower  down  ;  and  the  bush,  being  uprooted,  disclosed  a  mine  of  silver 
beneath.  It  is  often  very  much  so  with  prayer.  We  do  not  get  exactly  what 
we  ask,  but  we  get  richer  blessings  in  place  of  it.  The  more  familiar  we 
are  with  God,  the  more  intimate  we  are  with  Him  who  came  to  show  Him¬ 
self  to  us  in  the  person  of  His  Son  Jesus  Christ,  the  more  complete  the  joy 
we  shall  have  in  confidence  in  Him,  and  in  the  happiness  J^orn  of  conscious 
usefulness  to  others. 

I  did  not  mean  to  speak  five  minutes,  where  I  have  spoken  perhaps  fifteen. 
All  that  I  wish  to  say  at  the  end  is  just  this  :  that  if,  forty  years  hence,  any  of 
you  happen  to  remember  this  occasion,  and  happen  to  remember  these  words  which 
I  have  spoken,  if  you  will  look  back  upon  your  life,  having  accepted  the  words 
and  tried  to  follow  them  day  by  day,  you  will,  every  one  of  you,  say,  “  He  told 
us  exactly  the  truth  !  He  told  us  what  he  had  found  in  his  own  experience,  in 
a  degree,  to  be  true ;  and  what  he  knew  to  be  true  from  the  experience  of 
others,  and  from  the  teaching  of  God’s  word  and  Spirit.  He  told  us  the  way 
to  Happiness ;  and  our  life  has  been  as  bright  and  beautiful  as  it  has  been, 
because  we  have  followed  along  that  line  which  he  pointed  out!” 

I  thank  you  again,  with  all  my  heart,  for  this  beautiful  bronze  which  you 
have  given  me,  and  for  all  the  affectionate  thought  and  impulse  which  are 
expressed  by  it.  I  do  not  know  that  I  can  think  that  in  giving  me  this  your 
enjoyment  has  been  greater  than  mine  in  receiving  it,  for  then  it  would  pass 
all  reasonable  bounds  !  But  I  take  it  as  lovingly  as  it  is  offered,  and  we  shall 
together  rejoice  in  it. 

I  hope  that,  by  and  by,  when  all  these  earthly  days  are  ended,  and  we 
are  gone  hence,  the  youngest  of  us  as  well  as  the  oldest,  we  shall  be  joined 
in  the  perfect  blessedness  wrought  by  the  vision  of  perfect  faith,  in  that 


60 


APPENDIX. 


celestial  City,  where  the  day  never  ends,  where  storms  never  beat,  where 
flowers  never  fade,  and  where  we  shall  see  our  Master  face  to  face,  and  be 
with  Him  forever ! 

Tlie  following  Hymn  was  tlien  sung  : — 

JERUSALEM  THE  GOLDEN. 

Jerusalem  the  Golden  ! 

With  milk  and  honey  blest ; 

Beneath  thy  contemplation 
Sink  heart  and  voice  opprest. 

I  know  not,  0  !  I  know  not, 

What  social  joys  are  there ; 

What  radiancy  of  glory. 

What  light  beyond  compare. 

The}"  stand,  those  halls  of  Sion, 

All  jubilant  with  song. 

And  bright  with  many  an  angel, 

And  all  the  martyr  throng. 

The  Prince  is  ever  in  them. 

The  day-light  is  serene  ; 

The  pastures  of  the  blessed 
Are  decked  in  glorious  sheen. 

There  is  the  throne  of  David  ; 

And  there  from  care  released. 

The  song  of  them  that  triumph. 

The  shout  of  them  that  feast ; 

And  they,  who  with  their  Leader 
Have  conquered  in  the  fight. 

Forever  and  forever 

Are  clad  in  robes  of  Avhite. 

0  sweet  and  blessed  country, 

The  home  of  God’s  elect ! 

0  sweet  and  blessed  country. 

That  eager  hearts  expect  ! 

Jesus,  in  mercy  bring  us 
To  that  dear  land  of  rest ; 

Who  art,  with  Go<l  the  Father, 

And  Spirit,  ever  blest.  Amen. 

PRAYER  WAS  THEN  OFFERED  BY  DR.  STORRS. 

Almighty  God,  most  merciful  Father,  who  art  the  Author  of  our  life,  and 
the  Giver  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift :  we  bless  Thee  for  this  hour  of  happi¬ 
ness,  of  fellowship  with  one  another,  of  common  praise,  and  of  common  suppli¬ 
cation.  We  thank  Thee  for  the  life  and  health  of  those  who  are  gathered  as 
pupils  in  these  Sunday-schools ;  that  they  have  been  preserved  thus  far  from 


APPENDIX, 


61 


dangers  seen  and  unseen,  and  guided  in  safety  on  their  way  in  life.  We  thank 
Thee  for  the  tidings,  great,  and  beautiful,  and  gracious,  which  come  to  them 
afresh  with  every  Lord’s  day,  of  the  love  of  Him  who  is  the  Lord  of  glory,  hut 
who  was  Himself  a  babe  in  Bethlehem,  and  a  child  in  Xazareth.  AVe  bless 
Thee  that  Thou  hast  given  tlie  s})irit  of  love,  and  of  consecration,  the  spirit  of  wis¬ 
dom  and  faith  and  hope,  unto  those  to  whom  is  committed  the  instruction  of 
those  who  come  to  receive  it  from  them, — that  they  are  permitted  to  teach  others 
out  of  the  treasures  of  their  experience.  In  that  experience  may  they  them¬ 
selves  be  ever  enriched.  In  their  vision  of  the  truth  may  they  be  illumined,  as 
they  bring  the  light  of  wisdom  wliich  they  have  unto  those  who  are  committed 
in  part  to  their  care.  May  Thy  blessing  be  upon  all  who  are  associated  in  these 
schools  as  officers  and  teachers  ;  and  upon  all  who  are  taught  in  them,  that 
every  one  may  receive  the  Divine  instruction  into  a  rejoicing  heart,  into  an 
intelligent  mind,  with  confiding  faith,  with  gladness  and  with  praise.  May  the 
life  of  God,  coming  by  the  })ower  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  in  each  of  these  hearts — 
the  life  within  the  life  to  each  of  those  who  here  guide  and  teach,  and  to  each 
of  those  who  receive  their  instruction. 

AVe  bless  and  praise  Thee,  our  Heavenly  Father,  for  all  that  Thou  liast  done 
for  this  Church  in  the  years  that  are  past ;  especially  now  for  those  who  have  been 
baptized  into  it,  and  who  have  then  been  received  to  its  communion ;  who  have 
been  taught  in  its  schools,  and  who  have  afterward  come  to  take  office  in  these 
schools  upon  themselves,  and  to  stand  in  their  turn  in  places  of  influence  and  of 
power.  And  now,  most  merciful  Father,  we  commend  to  Thee  this  church  with 
which  we  are  so  tenderly  and  sacredly  associated,  and  pray  that  Thy  blessing  may 
rest  upon  it  in  all  time  to  come,  even  as  in  the  time  past,  and  yet  more  abundantly. 
AVe  pray  that  Thy  blessing  may  rest  upon  every  household  represented  before 
Thee  here ;  and  that  in  each  one,  parents  and  children  may  be  found  walking 
together,  seeking  the  heavenly  Home,  by  the  only  celestial  path.  And  at  last, 
when  our  life  on  earth  is  ended,  gather  us  there,  we  pray  Thee,  in  the  fellowship 
of  the  saints,  at  the  Marriage  Supper  of  the  Lamb,  in  the  beauty,  felicity  and 
praise  of  Paradise.  And,  unto  the  Father,  and  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit, 
will  we  give  the  glory  evermore  ! 

Hear  us  in  this  our  prayer,  accept  us  in  our  confession  of  sin,  and  our  entreaty 
for  Thy  forgiveness,  and  grant  us  all  the  spiritual  gifts  which  it  is  Thine  alone 
to  bestow,  for  the  sake  of  Him  who  loved  us,  who  gave  Himself  for  us,  and  who 
hath  taught  us  to  pray,  saying, — • 

Our  Father  who  art  in  Heaven,  hallowed  be  Thy  name.  Thy  kingdom 
come.  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth,  as  it  is  in  Heaven.  Give  us  this  day  our 
daily  bread.  And  forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive  those  who  trespass 
against  us.  And  lead  us  not  into  temi)tation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil  :  for 
Thine  is  the  kingdom,  and  the  power,  and  the  glory,  forever  and  ever.  Amen. 

The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  love  of  God,  and  the  communion  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  be  witli  us  all,  evermore.  Amen. 


62 


APPENDIX, 


PUBLIC  RECEPTION. 


The  Committee  of  gentlemen  having  charge  of  the  Reception  given  to  Dr. 
and  Mrs  Storrs  on  the  evening  of  November  18th,  was  as  follows,  representing 
the  Trustees,  the  Officers  of  the  church,  and  the  Young  People’s  Association : — ■ 


Mr.  Walter  T.  Hatch, 

Mr.  Franklin  Woodruff, 
Mr.  James  P.  AYallace, 

Mr.  George  P.  Stockwell, 
Mr.  Thomas  E.  Stillman, 

AIr.  Henry 


Mr.  Joseph  E.  Brown, 

Mr.  Joseph  Haslehurst, 
Mr.  Abbott  L.  Dow, 

Mr.  S.  B.  Chittenden,  Jr., 
Mr.  Arthur  M.  Hatch, 

.  Woodruff. 


At  the  request  of  the  Committee,  many  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the  congre¬ 
gation  took  part  in  superintending  and  conducting  the  Reception,  and  many 
young  gentlemen  gave  efficient  service  as  ushers. 

Not  only  the  members  of  the  church  and  congregation  of  the  Church  of  the 
Pilgrims,  but  a  very  large  number  of  distinguished  citizens  of  Brooklyn  and 
New  York,  with  many  eminent  clergymen  of  the  different  Protestant  commu¬ 
nions  in  either  city,  were  in  attendance  at  the  Reception,  and  had  the  oppor¬ 
tunity  to  express  personally  their  regard  and  their  congratulations  to  the  Pastor 
and  his  wife.  After  they  had  done  so,  in  a  procession  constantly  and  rapidly 
passing  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  a  brief  religious  service  was  held  in  the  church, 
as  follows : 

TE  DEUM,  BY  THE  CHOIR. 

Prayer,  by  Rev.  George  F.  Pentecost,  D.D. 

0  Thou  most  gracious,  ever  blessed  and  beloved  Head  of  the  Church :  we 
are  gathered  in  this  Thy  sanctuary  to-night  to  do  honor  to  Thy  servant,  all  of 
whose  honor  cometh  from  Thee  !  W e  beseech  Thee  therefore  that  Thy  Presence 
may  abide  with  us,  and  may  sanctify  all  the  doings  of  the  hour  which  is  past, 
and  all  the  doings  of  the  hour  which  is  now  with  us.  Gracious  Lord,  for  forty 
years  Thou  hast  dwelt  here  with  Thy  servant,  Thou  hast  upheld  his  hands,  and 
hast  made  his  ministry  strong.  Out  of  all  these  years  there  have  come  up  con¬ 
stant  praises  to  Thee,  through  the  testimony  of  his  lips,  and  in  the  ministry  of 
his  life,  whilst  Thou  hast  shown  ever  anew  Thine  eternal  love  and  faithfulness 
to  Thy  people. 

0  gracious  Lord,  whilst  we  thank  Thee  that  Thou  hast  raised  up  and 
strengthened  the  man  who  hath  borne  Thy  message,  and  who  hath  stood  in  Thy 
stead  before  this  people  of  God,  we  thank  Thee  also  that  Thou  hast  made  us  to 


APPENDIX, 


63 


know  Thine  own  presence,  behind  all  this  ministry,  and  in  the  midst  of  this 
teaching.  We  tliank  Thee,  that  to-night  the  hearts  of  this  peo])le  are  bound 
up  in  him  whom  Thou  hast  made  their  overseer  for  Thee,  because  he  hath  led 
them  one  by  one  unto  the  knowledge  of  Thee,  their  Saviour  and  their  Lord. 
AVe  thank  Thee  for  the  honor  which  comes  to  him  from  this  city,  whose  growth 
and  development  he  has  not  only  seen,  but,  to  whatsoever  is  best  in  them,  has 
contributed  so  largely  of  his  own  life  and  of  his  own  gifts.  We  pray  Thee  that 
the  institutions  which  he  hath  builded  here  may  abide  through  the  generations 
to  come ;  and  though  it  was  not  given  to  him  to  build  on  another  man’s  founda¬ 
tion,  we  thank  Thee  that  it  hath  been  given  him  to  lay  foundations  so  broad, 
so  deep,  and  so  abiding,  that  generations  to  come  may  build  upon  them,  and 
themselves  in  turn  be  built  upon  them,  through  those  who  shall  come  after  him 
in  the  ministry  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God. 

AVe  pray  Thee  that  whilst  we  are  honoring  Thy  servant  to-night,  our  hearts 
may  be  drawn  out  in  abundant  joy  at  the  thought  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
who,  having  loved  His  own,  loves  them  to  the  end ;  and  that  a  deepening  spirit 
of  loyalty  to  the  Truth,  which  has  been  steadily  preached  from  this  pulpit,  of 
loyalty  to  the  AA'ord  of  God  in  all  its  teachings,  of  loyalty  to  the  Church  of 
God,  and  to  the  Name  of  Jesus  Christ,  may  be  strengthened  in  the  hearts  of  all 
whose  memories  are  here  quickened  to  recall  the  messages  of  these  forty  years, 
and  to  review  the  ministrations  of  this  long  life  in  the  midst  of  them. 

AA^e  invoke  Thy  Divine  blessing  upon  the  reverend  head  of  Thy  servant. 
Make  his  remaining  days  yet  more  abundant  in  blessing  to  himself,  and  more 
abundant  in  blessing  to  his  people,  to  the  city,  to  the  whole  land  and  to  the 
world,  than  Thou  hast  made  those  to  be  in  the  years  which  are  gone.  AVe  thank 
Thee  that  Thou  hast  not  oidy  permitted  him  to  live  and  to  speak  in  the  midst  of 
this  Thy  people,  but  hast  also  given  him  opportunity  to  put  into  permanent 
form  such  instruction  and  wisdom,  and  such  gathered  stores  of  learning,  that 
generations  to  come,  on  both  sides  of  the  sea,  shall  be  enriched  by  the  treasures 
which  Thou  hadst  committed  to  his  care.  AVe  pray  for  Thy  blessing  upon  all 
who  are  near  and  dear  to  him.  Fill  his  hands  with  blessing.  Fill  his  heart, 
and  his  household,  with  blessing.  Pour  out  blessings  upon  his  children,  and 
upon  his  grandchildren.  Raise  up  to  come  after  him  successive  generations  of 
spiritual  men,  who  shall  take  the  torch  when  he  lays  it  down,  and  shall  stead¬ 
fastly  maintain  the  doctrine  and  truth  of  the  Son  of  God,  in  this  place  where  he 
has  nobly  and  manfully  stood  for  so  many  years. 

Alay  the  blessing  of  God  rest  upon  this  great  church,  which  has  been  gath¬ 
ered  by  hundreds,  and  even  by  thousands,  under  his  ministry.  Multiply  the 
strength  here  of  all  believers.  Increase  ■  their  beneficence,  and  intensify  their 
spiritual  faith.  Alay  this  church  be  still  the  mother  of  many  charities,  which 
shall  be  established  and  reproduced  throughout  the  length  and  l)readth  of  this 
city.  Alay  it  be  ever  henceforth  a  great  and  pulsing  centre  of  spiritual  life, 
sending  forth  continual  blessing  into  every  ward  and  precinct  of  the  town. 


G4 


APPENDIX. 


Bless,  we  beseech  Thee,  this  waiting  congregation.  May  we  all  go  hence,  say¬ 
ing  :  “It  was  good  for  us  to  go  up  to  the  house  of  the  Lord  !  It  was  good  for 
us  to  honor,  in  Christ’s  name,  one  of  the  Lord’s  anointed  servants  !  It  was  good 
for  us  to  have  our  memories  refreshed  by  the  suggestions  of  his  long  ministry  ! 
It  was  good  for  us  to  have  our  hearts  thrilled  by  the  thought  that  after  nearly 
two  thousand  years  from  His  coming  to  the  world  Jesus  is  mightier  to-day.  His 
Gospel  more  powerful,  the  Holy  Ghost  more  wide  and  effective  in  His  operation, 
in  all  the  world,  than  they  were  at  the  beginning.”  May  these  blessed  thoughts 
kindle  in  our  hearts  ever  fresh  and  blessed  hopes  !  May  they  quicken  in  our 
souls  new  enthusiasm,  and  nerve  us  for  the  fight  that  is  always  before  us,  in  this 
day  wlien  the  truth  is  being  denied,  and  when  the  god  of  this  world  is  mar¬ 
shalling  his  forces  for  tremendous  assault  upon  the  Church  of  God,  and  upon 
the  Word.  Strengthen  every  arm,  nerve  every  heart,  sanctify  every  life,  upon 
which  hath  been  named  the  Name  of  J esus  Christ ;  and  may  these  thousands  of 
witnesses  gathered  to-night  to  do  honor  to  Thy  servant,  and  to  Thee  through 
him,  go  from  this  place  with  a  stronger  purpose  than  ever  before  to  give  glory 
in  all  their  work  and  life  to  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Master,  the  Saviour, 
the  Lord  of  us  all.  We  ask  it  all  for  His  name’s  sake.  Amen. 

Dr.  Stores  then  said :  I  thank  you  all,  my  dear  Friends  ;  I  cordially  thank 
every  one  of  you ;  not  only  in  my  own  behalf,  but  in  behalf  of  her  who  has 
been  most  intimately  associated  with  me  in  all  my  years  in  this  church  of 
Christ,  and  on  behalf  of  our  children,  for  the  great  and  beautiful  honor  which 
you  have  done  us  this  evening.  I  most  fervently  echo  the  prayer  that  the  blessing 
of  the  Most  High  may  abide  upon  you  all ! 

I  will  ask  you  now  to  unite  in  singing  the  Doxology ;  after  which  I  will  ask 
the  Eeverend  Dr.  Behrends,  who  is  present  with  us,  to  pronounce  the  Benedic¬ 
tion.  There  will  then  be  another  opportunity  for  social  intercourse,  in  the 
Lecture-room. 

The  vast  congregation  then  rose  and  joined  in  singing 

The  Doxology. 

Praise  God,  from  whom  all  blessings  flow  ; 

Praise  Him,  all  creatures  here  below  ; 

Praise  Him  above,  ye  Heavenly  Host ; 

Praise  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost. 

Rev.  Dr.  A.  J.  F.  Behrends  pronounced 

The  Benediction. 

The  grace  of  our  Lord  fJesus  Christ,  the  love  of  God,  and  the  communion  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  be  and  abide  with  you  all,  evermore  !  Amen. 


APPENDIX. 


65 


PRESENTATION  OF  SILVER-PLATE,  BY  THE  YOUNG  PEOPLE’S 

ASSOCIATION. 

The  following  correspondence  will  at  once  explain  itself ; — 

Brooklyn,  November  16tli,  1886. 

Dear  Doctor  Storrs: — As  President  of  the  Young  People’s  Association  of 
our  church,  the  pleasant  duty  devolves  upon  me  of  sending  the  accompanying 
token  of  its  remembrance  to  Mrs.  Storrs  and  yourself,  on  the  fortieth  anniversary 
of  your  settlement  among  us,  which  is  to  be  celebrated  on  the  18th  inst. 

Of  the  appropriateness  and  of  your  appreciation  of  a  gift  from  the  younger 
element  of  the  churcli,  we  feel  assured,  knowing  as  we  do  how  much  and  how 
tenderly  this  element  has  l)een  in  your  thoughts,  and  feeling  greatly  indebted  to 
you  for  many  worthy  precepts  taught,  and  for  the  example  *of  noble  character 
^  which  has  been  before  us  for  such  a  long  time. 

For  the  years — and  we  trust  they  may  be  many — that  are  to  come,  we  wish 
both  for  you  and  your  good  wife  a  continuance  of  happiness  most  abundant;  and 
we  offer  you  our  best  efforts,  in  order  that,  still  under  your  guidance  and  leader¬ 
ship,  from  the  young  people  of  to-day  may  be  built  up  the  Church  of  the  Pil¬ 
grims  of  the  future. 

With  renewed  assurances  of  our  best  wishes,  I  remain,  as  ever, 

Faithfully  yours, 

Henry  S.  Woodruff, 

For  the  Young  People’s  Association. 

R.  S.  Stores,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


80  PiERREPONT  Street, 
Brooklyn,  November  17th,  1886. 

Dear  Friend: — Nothing  could  have  been  more  delightful  to  Mrs.  Storrs 
and  myself  than  a  testimonial  of  the  affectionate  attachment  of  those  who  are 
united  in  the  Young  People’s  Association  of  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims. 

The  superb  gift  which  has  come  from  them,  through  you,  this  evening,  ele¬ 
gant  and  rich  as  it  is  in  itself,  is  yet  more  dear  and  beautiful  to  us  as  represent¬ 
ing  tlie  loving  regard  from  which  it  comes.  It  will  be  a  witness  of  this  to  our 
children’s  children,  and  will  show  them  how  happy  we  have  been  and  are  in 
possessing  the  confidence  and  affectionate  honor  of  those  who  have  known  us 
from  their  childhood.  ■ 

Most  of  all  we  thank  you  for  the  assurance  of  your  best  efforts  to  Imild  up 
on  its  present  foundations  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims  of  the  future.  They  who 
have  long  been  active  in  it  must  ere  long,  one  by  one,  pass  away.  It  is  a  thouglit 
full  of  gladness  to  each  of  us,  not  only  that  we  shall  be  still  affectionately 
remembered  by  you  all  in  coming  years,  but  that  the  church,  which  has  been  so 


66 


APPENDIX, 


noble  and  beautiful  a  Christian  Home  for  all  of  us,  will  be  sustained,  and 
still  further  enriched,  in  its  faith,  its  spirit,  and  its  work,  by  those  who  come 
after  us. 

With  warmest  love,  and  heartiest  thanks,  to  all  who  have  been  associated 
with  you  in  this  most  beautiful  act  and  gift,  we  are 
Ever  affectionately  yours, 

R.  S.  AND  M.  E.  Stores. 

Mr.  H.  S.  Woodruff, 

President  of  Young  People’s  Association. 


COKKESPONDENCE  WITH  THE  HARVARD  CHURCH,  BROOK¬ 
LINE,  MASS. 

Dr.  Storrs  was  called  in  his  youth  from  the  Harvard  Church  in  Brookline, 
Mass,,  to  become  the  Pastor  of  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims.  It  was  felt  by  the 
latter  church  that  the  church  which  he  had  earlv  left,  and  to  which,  with  his 
wife,  he  had  always  remained  most  affectionately  attached,  should  be  specially 
invited  to  participate  in  the  services  connected  with  the  celebration  of  the  com¬ 
pletion  of  bis  forty  years’  pastorate  in  Brooklyn.  The  following  letter  was 
therefore  addresssd  to  the  Harvard  Church  by  a  Committee  consisting  of  gentle¬ 
men,  still  remaining  in  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims,  who  were  active  in  the 
original  call  to  Dr.  Storrs,  in  1846  : — 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  November  6,  1886. 

To  the  Pasto7',  Officers,  and  Members  of  the  Harvard  Church,  Brookline,  Mass. : — 

Reverend  and  Beloved  : — In  July,  1846,  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims  in 
this  city  called  to  its  pastorate  one  who  had  been  your  beloved  minister  for  less 
than  a  year.  Such  a  call,  to  one  who  had  so  recently  been  haj)pily  settled,  was 
unusual,  and  would  have  been  inexcusable  except  for  the  circumstances  in  which 
this  church  was  then  placed,  with  great  openings  set  before  it,  while  apparently 
unable  to  unite  in  cordial  harmony  on  any  other  person  known  to  it  as  its  Pastor- 
elect.  He  who  was  then  your  Minister  felt  constrained  by  convictions  of  duty 
to  accept  our  call ;  and  in  God’s  good  providence  he  has  remained  with  us  from 
November,  1846,  to  the  present  time,  never  forgetting,  as  he  has  often  assured 
us,  the  church  and  parish  of  his  first  care,  though  always  happy  in  the  home  arid 
the  work  which  he  has  found  here.  AVe  propose  to  celebrate  the  completion  of 
his  fortieth  year  in  the  pastorate  of  this  church,  writhout  any  elaborate  or  com¬ 
plicated  arrangements,  to  which  he  is  averse,  ])y  a  social  reunion  of  the  congre¬ 
gation  at  the  church  on  the  evening  of  Thursday,  November  18th  ;  and  it  would 
be  a  great  pleasure  to  us,  as  well  as  to  our  Pastor,  if  we  might  welcome  on  that 
occasion  to  our  hospitality  some  of  your  number.  We  rejoice  with  you,  always, 
in  the  great  and  beautiful  prosperity  which  God  has  given  to  your  church,  as  to 


APPENDIX, 


67 


ours,  in  this  long  course  of  years.  We  pray  that  your  'whole  history  as  a  church 
may  he  full  of  Christian  happiness,  usefulness,  and  enlarging  po'wer.  And  we 
are,  dear  brethren,  on  behalf  of  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims,  sincerely  and  affec¬ 
tionately  yours,  in  the  faith  and  service  of  Christ, 

S.  B.  Chittenden, 

Walter  T.  Hatch, 

C.  L.  Mitchell, 

H.  D.  Sharpe, 

A.  Woodruff,  1886. 

S.  F.  Phelps, 

C.  B.  Adorn, 


Members  of  the  Church  of 
the  Pilgrims  in  1846  and 


To  the  above  letter  the  following  reply  was  received  from  the  Harvard 
Church,  and  the  Reception  Committee  had  the  very  great  pleasure  of  welcoming 
several  representatives  of  that  church  on  the  evening  of  the  18th : — 

Brookline,  Mass.,  November  13,  1886. 

To  the  Officers  and  Members  of  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. : — 

Dear  Brethren  : — In  reply  to  a  letter  addressed  to  us,  signed  by  members 
of  your  church  who  were  in  its  fellowship  in  the  year  1846,  when  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Storrs  was  called  to  its  ministry,  we  beg  to  assure  you  of  our  appreciation  of  the 
privilege  of  being  allowed  to  be  represented,  by  several  esteemed  brethren  from 
the  Harvard  Church,  at  your  meeting  on  November  18th. 

The  Harvard  Church  regards  itself  as  a  kind  of  preface  to  the  volume  con¬ 
taining  the  records  of  the  ministry  of  your  beloved  Pastor. 

But  four  of  those  who  called  him  to  his  first  brief  pastorate  remain ;  they, 
however,  represent  the  general  feeling  of  warm  regard  which  has  always  been, 
and  is,  entertained  toward  Dr.  Storrs  in  this  church.  If  with  us  the  brilliant 
dawn  was  soon  beclouded,  and  tlie  daylight  since  has  never  equalled  it  in  promise 
and  splendor,  yet  the  light  has  ever  shone  through  the  clouds  that  have  some¬ 
times  hovered  over  us,  and  we  liave  had  our  fair  share  of  sunshine. 

The  new  and  beautiful  structure,  one  of  the  most  admired  for  its  architectural 
purity  in  all  New  England,  which  has  superseded  the  less  commodious  building 
to  which  your  Pastor  was  called,  has  on  several  occasions  been  adorned  and 
beautified  by  his  presence.  We  have  followed  his  history  with  an  interest  which 
could  hardly  belong  to  others  outside  your  own  fellowship.  We  have  rejoiced 
in  his  goodness  and  greatness.  We  have  had  intelligence  enough  to  appreciate 
the  brilliant  gifts  with  which  he  has  been  endowed,  the  splendid  culture  by 
which  he  has  doubled  the  talents  which  the  Master  entrusted  to  him,  and  have 
gloried  in  the  added  greatness  which  his  presence  has  often  given  to  great  occa¬ 
sions  in  the  history  of  the  Congregational  churches  in  our  land. 

To  few  churches  does  it  belong  to  have  a  ministry  so  singularly  rich  in  elo¬ 
quence  and  spiritual  power,  continued  through  so  long  a  period.  To  very  fe'w 


68 


APPENDIX. 


Ministers  is  given  the  benediction  of  a  people,  so  abundantly  able  to  appreciate 
tbrougb  long  years  so  high  an  order  of  ministry. 

In  an  age  when  sensationalism  has  so  often  been  substituted  for  the  old 
honest  Christian  thinking,  with  which  our  churches  were  in  former  days  enriched 
in  intelligence  and  fortified  in  the  faith,  your  Pastor  has  stood  before  the  churches 
as  an  illustration  of  a  man  who  believed  that  the  truths  of  Scripture,  expounded 
with  adequate  intelligence,  learning,  and  ability,  were  all-sufficient  for  the  deep¬ 
est  needs  of  the  heart  of  man.  It  is  true  that  language,  as  used  by  him,  has 
seemed  to  contain  new  force,  and  to  be  clad  in  new  beauty.  The  old  truths,  as 
he  gave  them  utterance,  have  seemed  to  have  a  subtle  charm  of  newness  about 
them.  He  has  touched  nothing  which  he  has  not  adorned.  In  this  respect  he 
has  been  in  a  position  of  advantage  to  which  few,  if  any,  could  attain. 

We  join  our  congratulations  with  yours,  that  on  the  completion  of  his  fortieth 
year  of  pastorate  in  your  church,  he  is  still  in  the  fullness  of  his  strength,  “his 
eye  not  dim,  nor  his  natural  force  abated”;  and  we  unite  with  you,  fervently 
and  sincerely,  in  the  prayer  that  there  may  yet  remain  for  him  and  for  you, 
many  years  of  happy  fellowship  and  Christian  usefulness  in  the  Church  militant 
here  on  earth,  and  that,  when  the  close  of  this  present  opportunity  of  service 
shall  come,  the  great  word  of  approval  may  be  heard  from  His  lips  Avho  alone 
has  the  right  and  power  to  give  it:  “Well  done,  good  and  faithfvd  servants; 
enter  ye  into  the  joy  of  your  Lord.” 

Signed,  in  behalf  of  the  Harvard  Church, 

Eeuen  Thomas,  Pastor. 


Charles  W.  Scudder, 
Alicia  H.  Scudder, 
Moses  Withington, 
Samuel  A.  Kobinson,  . 


'  Members  of  the  Church  in  1846. 


“  Now  UNTO  Him  that  is  able  to  do  exceeding  abundantly,  above  all 

THAT  WE  ASK  OR  THINK,  ACCORDING  TO  THE  POWER  THAT  WORKETH  IN  US, 

UNTO  Him  be  Glory  in  the  Church,  by  Christ  Jesus,  throughout  all 

AGES,  WORLD  WITHOUT  END  !  A  MEN.” 


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